Dreamscapes: Revelations
by Zoe1078
Summary: Sequel to Dreamscapes. Jacob's and Bella's dreams and desires keep drawing them together even while external forces pull them apart, and an imprint threatens their happiness. In the backdrop, the bonds between Paul and Rachel, as well as Leah, Sam and Emily are redefined. Now nominated for four Non-Canon Awards.
1. Prologue

Dreamscapes: Revelations

Summary: Sequel to Dreamscapes. Reading that story first is highly recommended. Jacob's and Bella's dreams and desires keep drawing them together even while external forces pull them apart.

Rating: MA for later chapters for graphic sexuality and violence. Not intended for those under 18, or in the last quarter of the story, people who are squeamish. This story is categorized as romance and suspense, because those are the prevailing themes, but could also be categorized as adventure, humor, and horror.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Stephenie Meyer. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Thanks much to my fabulous beta, Babs81410, over at JBNP.

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Prologue

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When Jacob Black was six, if you had asked him to rank the girls in his life in order of importance, Jasmine Hudson would have been fifth on the list. First place undoubtedly belonged to Sarah Black. But she could hardly be called a girl, at least in Jacob's young eyes. So really, Bella Swan could easily have been considered first, but only if Jacob's mother was disqualified due to being a woman rather than a girl. But considering how little he actually saw the older girl, Bella took a disproportionate percentage of his attention and affection, a fact that would not change, and eventually made more sense. Rachel and Rebecca were continually tied in third place, one edging out the other on a minute-to-minute basis, depending on what was going on. Considering how much he saw of them, and the fact that they actually took care of him in many ways, it was really unfair that he cared for Bella more than he cared for either of them. But neither of them minded. Girls their age did not get offended when their baby brothers strayed from their sides to follow someone else around. In fact, they were rather grateful when Bella's annual visits rolled around, as she would take their brother off their hands for a while so they could enjoy each other's company fully. Distantly, very distantly beyond these four female creatures, ranked little Jasmine.

When Jacob Black turned sixteen, if you had asked him to rank the girls in his life in order of importance, Bella Swan was firmly and unquestionably first on the list from the very moment she pulled up to his house with two broken motorcycles in the back of her truck. She almost, almost moved every other girl off the list, and to be honest, there wasn't much competition. Had Jasmine Hudson still lived in La Push, she might have been granted a place on the list, and likely a high one, but he had not seen her in years. Rebecca had moved to Hawaii and gotten married, and Rachel had gone off to school and seemed never to be coming back. Jacob still visited Sarah's grave regularly, still brought flowers and sat leaning against the headstone. And some days, when he was feeling particularly low (this got much worse in the springtime when Bella ran off to Italy and came home with her undead boyfriend), he lay on the ground and talked to his mother. Jacob hadn't felt so angry, so powerless, so frustrated, since Sarah herself had died. This was not quite so bad, of course, for many reasons, but it was also somehow worse. Because he had never felt as if he should have been able to save his mother. He did feel as if he should be able to save Bella Swan, but for the longest time, she refused to be saved.

But later that same year, the whole list rearranged. Leah Clearwater leaped to unexpected prominence on his list, Leah with her sarcastic wit, her lightning speed, her sharp bite, and her deep loyalty. Rachel came home and was dragged forcefully into his chaotic, magical world. And Bella started to seek him out in her dreams. And there, free from her layers of fear and guilt and misplaced obligation, she showed him her truest self. In his dreams, he was purely happy. And when he returned to her in the day, in the sun, and she finally, finally opened her heart and her arms to him, there was no question. She was first in his heart, and there she would remain.

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When Bella Swan was six, if you had asked her to rank the boys in her life in order of importance, Jacob Black might not have even made the list. First place probably belonged to Charlie Swan, but truth be told, she barely saw him. And he could hardly be called a boy, at least to Bella's young eyes. Her mother's then-boyfriend Stan might have been second by default, but the same rule applied to him. Third place, at that time, belonged to Josh Grayson, who sat next to her on the bus to and from school. Fourth through sixteenth places were inevitably tied between all the other boys in her class. They were continually edging out each other on a minute-to-minute basis, depending on what was going on. Somewhere below them ranked Jacob Black. He was still sort of a baby. He wasn't even in kindergarten yet, and she saw him even less than she saw Charlie. But she still had a soft spot for him. He was sweet, and he made her laugh.

When Bella Swan was seventeen, if you had asked her to rank the boys in her life in order of importance, Jacob Black might have moved up to third on the list, except for one thing. First place unquestionably belonged to Edward Cullen. In fact, the entire list was comprised of Edward Cullen. As far as she was concerned, he was the only boy in existence. And considering how many other men were a part of her life, it was really unfair of her to devalue everyone else. Her father didn't matter, Phil didn't matter, certainly Jacob Black didn't matter. Jacob only mattered in so far as he had some information about the Cullens, and because he provided her with transportation.

When Bella Swan was eighteen, if you had asked her to rank the boys in her life in order of importance, the answer would have depended greatly on timing, as well as Bella's current level of self awareness. But even during her most oblivious, self-centered moments, Jacob Black would have moved firmly into second place, and she would have given him credit, all along, for her being alive to be able to write the list. (If you had asked Charlie Swan to write the list, Jacob Black would have been first from the beginning). When Bella Swan was eighteen, she fell in love with the best man she would ever know.

By the time Bella Swan turned nineteen, Jacob had moved securely up to first place. But unlike Edward Cullen, he did not displace everyone else. With Jacob in her life, the list of important men simply grew longer. Along with Charlie and Billy, all the wolves of La Push became a more integral part of her. Despite this, Bella only had eyes for Jacob. And he had only ever had eyes for her.

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When Jasmine Hudson was six, if you had asked her to rank the boys in her life in order of importance, Jacob Black would have been second on the list. First place undoubtedly belonged to Isaac Hudson, her father. But he could hardly be called a boy, at least to Jasmine's young eyes. So really, Jacob Black could easily have been considered first, but only if Jasmine's father was disqualified due to being a man rather than a boy. There wasn't much other competition, to be honest, as Jasmine had no brothers (or sisters, for that matter), and her cousins Brady and Seth were only toddlers. Quil Ateara and Embry Call were continually tied for a distant third place, one edging out the other on a minute-to-minute basis, depending on what was going on. Considering how often she saw the three boys at the same time, it was really unfair that she cared for Jacob so much more than either of the other two. But neither of them minded, and Jacob, oblivious, didn't notice at all. Jasmine only had eyes for Jacob.

They spent their childhood together. The first time Jasmine laid eyes on Jacob was on her first day of preschool. A friendly young teacher led her into the Willow Room. He was stacking blocks up high, creating veritable skyscrapers out of the well worn pieces of colorful wood. Quil would then exuberantly knock them down. Jacob didn't get angry; he simply started another. Embry hunted through the big blue Rubbermaid bin for what he considered to be the best blocks and handed them to Jacob. Jasmine's mother had been afraid that the little girl would be intimidated to be left at the school alone for the very first time. She was not, being too fascinated by the building and rapid destruction of the towers to be afraid.

Before her mother left her alone, a tiny little girl, even smaller than Jasmine, came right up to her. "I'm Julie. I'm taller than you." She was not, but neither Jasmine nor her mother corrected her. This, apparently, meant that Jasmine passed the test. Julie grabbed Jasmine by the hand and took her to a little table covered with paper and crayons. Julie talked, non stop, for the next hour and a half. Jasmine liked the chatter, but turned herself so she could keep an eye on the fascinating boys. Being three, she was not at all subtle about it. They moved on from block towers to Duplo structures, but the same pattern applied. Embry searched for just the right block, Jacob assembled, and Quil knocked down. It seemed very satisfying for the three of them.

Eventually Quil noticed Jasmine staring, and during a very brief pause in Julie's chatter, he came over to say hello. "I'm Quil. You pretty," he declared. She was, and also rather used to people telling her this. So used to it, in fact, that she thought it not unusual in the least that this boy, a stranger to her, was telling her so.

"I'm Jasmine," she answered. "Want play with those," she pointed at the interlocking blocks. She did not, actually, and much preferred to color than stack blocks, but Jacob Black already fascinated her, and he seemed to come along with the blocks.

"Kay," Quil agreed, and led her over. Embry didn't need help picking out blocks, and Quil had destruction cornered. But Jacob wasn't possessive about building, so Jasmine sat right across from him. She helped place blocks while continuing to stare at him, and he appreciated how much faster the building progressed. But not as much as Quil appreciated how much sooner he got to knock it all down. At one point, she handed Jacob a red brick that he wanted. He flashed a brilliant grin at her, and from that moment on she was a goner. By the time her mother came to pick her up, preschool was her new favorite place, and Jasmine Hudson was besotted.

Every day, Jasmine trailed along with the three boys. She often brought Julie with her, or the next girl to join their class two weeks later, Melissa. Missy talked almost as much as Julie. Sometimes they both talked at exactly the same time. Following them both at once was a little challenging, but Jasmine was a good listener. Usually Julie and Missy could be convinced to play near the boys, and sometimes actually with them. It made it easier that Julie liked to watch Embry the way Jasmine liked to watch Jacob. Other days, Missy and Julie couldn't be convinced to play with or even near with the boys. On those days, Jasmine reluctantly followed the girls, looking longingly back at Jacob from time to time. Quil occasionally noticed and would come over to try to convince her to come play with them anyway. She declined, each time resolving to herself that she would come as soon as Jacob asked her. He never did. But Quil always stayed by her side, telling her jokes until she laughed. He didn't want to leave while she still had a scowl on her face.

Then, two months later, Jacob disappeared entirely. Jasmine was nervous on the first day, worried on the second, and practically panicking on the third. Another boy had not shown up one day the month before, and he never came back. When she asked after him, the teacher told her he had moved to Canada. A whole other country. And he was never coming back. Was Jacob coming back? Embry and Quil looked perfectly calm, though, so nothing awful could have happened, could it? Where was he? She finally worked up the nerve to ask. Embry and Quil just shrugged in response. "Dunno," was all she got. She was so nervous every day before school that she quit eating breakfast, she was so queasy with worry. Always a hearty eater, her mother even took her to the doctor, who declared that she had a virus and sent her back home.

Thankfully, after a week, Jacob returned. Every other word out of his mouth was "Bella", and he had stars in his eyes. Jasmine soon found out that Bella went fishing, could catch frogs, and loved collecting shells on the beach. Jacob couldn't wait for each day to end since he was going to see Bella in the afternoon, or she was coming to see him. And other days he did not appear at all. If she asked where he went, Embry and Quil just shrugged. But she knew anyway. Jacob was with Bella. It made her tummy hurt, but she didn't know why.

After a month, he came in with the saddest frown she had ever seen on his usually sunny face. That made Jasmine's tummy hurt even more. When she worked up the courage to ask what was wrong, he just said, "She's gone," and didn't open his mouth again for three days.

That pattern repeated itself, in varying ways, for the next five years. The next year, still in preschool, but this time in the Oak room, the month in question was preceded by a several weeks' worth of loud anticipation of Bella's arrival. Then Jacob's attendance was spotty, he couldn't stop grinning, and all he talked about when he did come in was Bella. He was gone for several days, so Jasmine kept busy with Julie and Missy, but couldn't help wondering when he would return. Each day he came to school he had a new treasure in his pocket. A seashell, a polished rock, and once, a pretty piece of smooth blue sea glass. When he thought no one was looking, he would take his treasure out of his pocket and finger it gently with his other hand, a little smile on his face. But when Bella left, utter despondence. It was like someone just took the sun out of the sky. It took another two weeks for him to return to his usual self. But his smile returned, as always, the same one that Jasmine adored. And even in his lowest mood, if she hurt herself or lost a toy, Jacob always stopped to help her, leading her to the teacher to ask for a band aid, or searching in every nook and cranny looking for her lost belongings. Jasmine never noticed Quil watching her watch Jacob, but she did notice that Quil tried to cheer her up even though it was his friend who seemed more sad than anyone else.

Kindergarten was next. All six of them, as well as a newcomer, Katelyn, were in the same class. The year progressed much as the previous two had. Katelyn noticed Jacob in the same way that Jasmine had. Jasmine was alarmed to see that Katelyn stared at Jacob the same way she did. But Katelyn did other things, too. She actually tried to hold Jacob's hand. For a few days after Katelyn arrived, Jasmine was afraid that Katelyn would turn Jacob's head in the same way that the mysterious Bella did. But it was not to be. He was nice enough, certainly, but he was clearly just as happy to keep playing with Jasmine, Quil, and Embry, as he was to welcome the new girl. And when Katelyn tried to hold his hand, he looked at it skeptically and extricated himself before running off. Jasmine was relieved.

In the fall, Jacob helped teach her to add. He tried to teach her to subtract, but she didn't think he knew what he was doing. The teacher gently agreed, and they set that aside for later. He, Embry, and Quil switched from Duplo blocks to Legos. Katelyn prompted the girls to switch from Barbie dolls to Bratz dolls, although Jasmine didn't really care for either, and joined the boys whenever she could. All three of the boys joined Pop Warner football. Katelyn started Pop Warner cheer, and Jasmine begged her parents to let her, but was not allowed. All three boys talked about how good they were, but Katelyn confirmed that they were bragging more than anything. She explained that they really liked running into each other, and Jasmine wished she could be there to see it. The weather turned colder, and Jacob started showing up to school in a puffy jacket with a fake fur lined hood. Jasmine thought he looked like the cutest Eskimo she had ever seen. Katelyn's jacket was pink and sparkling, and Jasmine was afraid that Jacob would think Katelyn looked pretty in the coat, especially compared to Jasmine's own plain green one. But Jacob didn't notice. So everything was fine.

That is, until they returned from Thanksgiving break. Then another endless round of "BellaBellaBella" started. Embry clarified when Jacob was too excited to form coherent sentences. "Bella's coming for Christmas. He thought she wasn't coming until next summer, but she's gonna spend the holiday with her dad." Jasmine's heart fell into her stomach, but she didn't understand why at the time. Katelyn looked confused. By the time they returned from Christmas break, she wasn't confused any longer, and scowled visibly each time Jacob mentioned Bella. The mentioning, and the scowling with it, lasted well into February. Jacob also returned from the holiday bearing a shiny new fire engine in his backpack. The ladder turned all the way around and extended to twice its original length, and it had a working siren and light. He never, ever lost sight of the toy, and Jasmine quickly understood why. It was a gift from Bella. On the last day of school, an older boy, Paul Lahote, took the toy from Jacob and melted it in a fire he had started in the school parking lot. Paul got in trouble and was going to have to start his summer vacation in an otherwise empty classroom with nothing to entertain him. Jasmine thought that Jacob would cry, or maybe punch Paul, but he did neither. He did clench his little fists at his sides, but when Jasmine asked him if he was okay and told him she was sorry for what happened to his toy, Jacob sighed and shrugged. Then he gave her one of his sunniest smiles. "It's okay, Bella's coming back in two weeks. Just two weeks! She probably won't give me another truck, but she'll give me other stuff to remind me of her." At that, Jasmine felt happy and sad all at the same time. Then Quil unexpectedly jumped on Paul's back and started smacking him in the head, and everyone got distracted pulling them apart.

One month later, Jasmine's parents took her for a picnic on First Beach along with her cousins, Leah, Seth, and Brady. While the grown ups were busy eating and talking, she and Leah decided that Seth and Brady were being bratty even though they weren't. The girls decided to take off their shoes and decided to go for a walk. They slipped off their sandals and stepped just into the water, both of them trying to see how far they could go before they got their shorts wet. Leah was much better at this than Jasmine, as Jasmine was not very good at paying attention to the tide or the waves. At one point, Jasmine stopped walking entirely. A wave large enough to soak her shirt came barrelling at her. She didn't notice until she was wet up to her neck, when Leah pulled her back to the shore.

"What's up with you?" Leah asked.

Jasmine didn't answer. She couldn't breathe for several seconds. She had spotted Jacob sitting on a driftwood log several yards down the beach. He wasn't alone. He was with a pale, pretty girl with long brown hair. Their shoulders touched. They leaned so closely together that their heads were tipped together, and they were holding hands. Jacob looked more blissfully happy than she had ever seen him. This, then, must be Bella. She was about the same size as Jacob, even though Jasmine knew her to be older by two years. Jasmine didn't really notice Jacob's mother standing behind them with a camera, or Bella's father smiling at them calmly. She didn't move until Leah physically pulled her out of the ocean and led her back to their parents, saying, "Something's wrong with her. She needs new clothes and some food or something." Her mother provided her with both, then decided she had probably come down with a cold, and took her home. She wasn't sick, of course, but allowed her mother to baby her. It helped.

A month later, Jasmine was back on the beach with Brady, but not Leah or Seth. She came across Jacob in the exact same place as before. His sisters were chasing each other through the surf in front of him, but he wasn't about to join in. She took Brady by the hand and let him up to Jacob, who was sitting on the log, but slumped down so far she thought he'd fall off.

"Hi, Jake," she said.

He looked up, startled. "Hey, Jasmine," he said, with a flat voice.

She knew exactly what was wrong. "Your friend is gone again, huh?"

He pouted. "And she's not coming back for, like, a whole year!"

Jasmine sat on the log beside him, pulling Brady up beside her. "You've got lots of other friends, though." She was blatantly referring to herself, of course. If Jacob was ten years older, he might have picked up on it, but he was not, and did not.

"S'not the same," he sighed. "No one else is as awesome, or makes me laugh as much, or is as nice, or as pretty as Bella."

Jasmine's tummy felt all wrong at this statement. Luckily, Brady squirmed back off the log, so she had an excuse to go chasing him off. She didn't want to hear more about Bella. But she didn't want Jacob to be so sad, even if she was. She yelled back at him, "Maybe she'll be back again for Christmas this year!"

He perked up at that, and she got a glimpse of the smile she loved. "Yeah, maybe you're right!"

Soon enough, first grade started. The kids in her classes remained mostly the same due to the small number of kids on the Rez. Jacob, Quil, and Embry were still best friends, and her circle of girls didn't change either. Julie had also seen Embry several times at the grocery store, and turned those chance meetings into very long, intricate stories. Jasmine told Katelyn that she had seen Jacob at the beach a few times, technically true, but she made it out to be more than it was. The other girl got jealous. By now, Jacob really did know how to subtract, and helped her learn how to as well. Katelyn was better at subtraction than Jacob was, so she didn't need his help, but Katelyn did fall and skin her knee pretty badly at recess once, and Jasmine thought it was probably worth the blood and pain when Jacob helped her up and let her lean on his arm when he walked her to the nurse's office. Jasmine thought of doing the same, but couldn't bring herself to deliberately injure herself. Soon enough, though, he returned, and they continued their game of kickball. Jasmine was very good at this game, girl or not, and Jacob knew it. If he was captain, he always picked her for his team. She still couldn't convince her parents to let her start Pop Warner cheering with Katelyn, but the boys were still in football. This time, they were able to back up their bragging with a winning record of games.

That year, Bella did not come to visit for Christmas, putting a little frown on Jacob's small face for a few days straight. But when he came back from the break, he proudly displayed on his desk a homemade card that Bella had sent him for the holiday. She had cut it in the shape of a fire engine in memory of his toy that Paul destroyed. The card was removed by Valentine's day. The class all had to make valentines for each other. Each child was required to give a valentine to every other child in the class to make sure that no one felt left out. Jasmine put extra special care into the card she made for Jacob. She glued more hearts on his than on any other card she made, and made sure to use the prettiest color of red and silver glitter on the giant heart. She even pasted a lacy edge all around the border, no small feat for her small hands. She was very proud of her work, and he gave her a big grin when he opened it. And the one he handed back to her had both hearts and smiley faces drawn all over it, and even contained a roll of Smarties candies. But the Valentine that took the place of honor on his desk was not hers. Bella Swan had sent him a valentine of her own. Bella's was more neatly cut, and had less glue poking out of it. And it had come in the actual mail. Jasmine was a bit devastated, and also failed to notice that Quil had put more effort into her valentine than he had anyone else's.

A few weeks later, Jasmine was relieved to see the offensive valentine removed from Jacob's desk. But at recess that afternoon, Julie declared that she was jealous of Jacob. Jasmine couldn't think of a single reason that this would be true, and asked why. Embry had told Julie that Jacob was still getting letters in the mail. It started with the valentine, but then continued at least once a week, and sometimes two. Jasmine was afraid she knew why this was. The next day, as Katelyn was talking her ear off as they walked around the room during free time, they made sure to swing by Jacob's desk, as they always did. No one else but Katelyn was reliable enough to make this circuit with her. Jacob was bent over his desk, #2 pencil in hand, frowning in concentration as he carefully marked the lined notebook paper. Katelyn and Jasmine made sure only to glance at the sheet, but the top of the page was perfectly clear. "Dear Best Bella," it began. Jasmine didn't look any further. By the time she and Katelyn finished their loop, she was sad again. But then Quil appeared and told her about the new lizard his mother had gotten him as a pet, and she temporarily forgot about her misery.

That summer, Jasmine avoided the beach for the duration of time that she knew Bella Swan was in town. She did learn to swim in the community pool, though, and both Missy and Embry were in her class. Quil was in the advanced group, along with Katelyn and Leah, which ended right before hers started. Quil and Katelyn often stayed a bit late to play with them, disrupting their class and sometimes getting in a little trouble, particularly when Quil would come up behind one of them under the water and tickle their feet. It felt nice, actually. Quil always stopped tickling right before it went from funny to annoying. And Embry always got Quil back anyhow, dunking him under.

Second grade was a busy year. Jacob took to fractions right away, and with his help, Jasmine did too. He had a hard time focusing on their longer reading assignments, but he had a better time with it when they discussed them together. It was a bad year for football, but Katelyn progressed in cheering and liked it even more. Jasmine only asked to join once, and was again turned down. Julie, Missy, and Embry all joined the music program. Julie tried the violin. Jasmine thought it sounded like a yowling cat under Julie's inexperienced hands, but Embry kindly grinned when she played and told her how good she was. Missy took up the cello. It sounded much nicer, although Jasmine wasn't sure if it was because cellos were better than violins, or because Missy was just better at playing than Julie. Embry played percussion, very enthusiastically, and they all agreed that he was very good.

Jacob and Quil were moved up to the next division of football since they were bigger than Embry, who was left behind. But Quil was the one who broke his arm. Jasmine figured he must have gotten tackled, although seeing them bundled in their pads, she wondered how it was possible to get injured at all. Later, when she signed his cast with a bright purple pen, he sheepishly admitted that an older boy had actually tripped over the warm up bench and landed on him. It wasn't much of a war story, but she was just happy he was going to be okay. Without Quil, the team didn't do as well as they had the previous year, but they still had a winning record.

Two weeks before Christmas break, Jacob came to school with a frown on his face, announcing that Bella wasn't going to come see her father. He looked so sad that Jasmine decided to give him his Christmas present a little early. She had been carrying it in her Hello Kitty backpack, and the wrapping paper was getting wrinkled. It was a copy of _Frog and Toad Together_. Jasmine had helped Jacob focus long enough to read _Frog and Toad are Friends_in class, and he had thanked her profusely and told her she was his lifesaver. Even though Frog and Toad were both boys, she thought of Jacob as Frog and herself as Toad. But she plastered a fake smile on his face when, after looking at the cover of the two friends bicycling together, he announced that it reminded him of him and his Bells. Then he squished her in a tight bear hug, and her smile turned from fake to real.

For Valentine's day that year, Jasmine again put her best effort into making Jacob's card. By now, Katelyn had moved along from her crush on Jacob to another boy in their class. But Katelyn had long ago picked up on Jasmine's continuing crush, and now she was old enough to have the language to tease her about it. Embarrassed, Jasmine hid the half finished giant heart in her desk. It got pushed beneath her other assignments. She forgot about it until Jacob displayed on his desk the delicate lace heart that Bella had sent him. Embry and Quil teased him that he had a girlfriend, and he blushed but didn't deny it. Jasmine found her partly finished valentine and tossed it in the trash. Missy saw her scowl and hugged her. Quil spotted how sad she had become and came to take over the hug. Then he started tickling her, and she was unable to stay sad any longer.

Over the summer, she, Missy, and Embry were all promoted to the advanced swim class with Quil and Katelyn. From time to time, Jacob showed up for free swim, which directly followed their class, with his older sisters. They proclaimed him to be a fish who needed no lessons to swim, and he proved them right by not only diving fearlessly off the diving board, but by cannonballing from the high platform. Quil and Embry battled with him over who could make the biggest splash. Then, despite her attempts to avoid running into Jacob while his friend was in town, Jacob brought Bella to the pool with him. The girl was clearly shy, but apparently did know how to swim. He coaxed her into the water, then into the deep end, where they chased each other from side to side, laughing and splashing one another. Embry nearly took out Bella during a poorly timed cannonball, and Jacob got so angry that his mother had to get into the water to pull him away. Jasmine watched with equal parts fascination and depression as the older girl followed him out and calmed him down by wrapping her arms and legs around him to reassure him she was fine. If Jacob could have burrowed into her body, he clearly would have. Soon enough, Bella attacked Jacob with tickles. Jasmine was certain she had never seen him so happy. She was almost embarrassed when he caught her staring, but he simply waved her over to introduce her to "My Bells". The older girl smiled shyly from her position behind Jacob. As Jasmine walked away, she heard Bella ask Jacob, "Does that mean you're my Jake?" Jacob giggled in response, and Jasmine knew better than Bella herself that Jacob was, indeed, hers.

A week later, Paul Lahote told Quil that he was going to get cooties from hanging around girls so much. Quil repeated this to anyone who would listen, and after that, Jasmine didn't see any of the boys quite so much. This meant that by the time third grade rolled around, the girls and boys no longer intermingled much at school. But Jasmine continued to watch Jacob from afar. He still helped her with her math, this time multiplication, but they no longer played together at recess. Mostly this saddened Jasmine. There was one upside to it, however. She no longer heard about Bella Swan all the time.

Around the same time, Katelyn clued Julie and Missy in to Jasmine's longstanding crush. Jasmine was mortified. If all the girls knew, then soon all the boys might know, and that could result in Jacob knowing, and that would be a disaster. So Jasmine immediately started pretending to hate all boys. Jacob included. It wasn't that hard, considering that the boys had already started ignoring them, which was annoying. So she played up how annoyed she was. She was never convinced that she was really fooling the other girls. Particularly since she still melted into a little puddle when Jacob sat down every day to do her multiplication tables with her.

When Christmas came and went, and no Bella Swan appeared, Jasmine was relieved. Relieved, that is, until March rolled around, and Jacob announced to Quil and Embry that Bella was coming up for Spring Break. Jasmine simply overheard him talking during recess. Actually, everyone overheard him, because he wasn't talking. He was so excited that he was yelling. Jasmine nearly fell off the big metal arch she was climbing. And when Quil stuck out his tongue and declared that Jacob was going to get cooties from making kissy faces at Bella, Jacob responded by leaning into his friend's face and saying something back, very softly. For some reason, rather than slugging Jacob like she expected him to, Quil responded by yelling, "I do not!", and then mysteriously grabbing up a handful of twigs and mulch, clambering up the arch, and dumping the mess in her hair. Jasmine was so perplexed that she didn't cry. And Katelyn, of all people, rushed to her defense. She ran up to Quil and tossed mulch all over him. Their teacher rushed over before it degenerated any further, while Jacob walked over to Jasmine, helped her down from the arch, and then sweetly picked all the little pieces of wood out of her hair. Her heart fluttered in her chest. He declared her "spic and span", gave her his signature grin, and then wandered off.

During Spring Break, two important things happened. The first far overshadowed the second. The second was that Jasmine spotted Jacob and Bella while she was getting out of her mother's car at the grocery store. Despite being two years older than Jacob, Bella continued to be exactly the same height as he was. Jacob was taking advantage of this fact to show her that he was stronger even though she was older, so when Jasmine spotted them, Jacob had wrapped his arms tightly around Bella's middle and was proving, very awkwardly, that he could pick her up. It worked until they both collapsed into a fit of laughter on the ground. Normally, this would have put Jasmine into a bad mood. But she was already in a bad mood. The first thing had happened that morning. Her parents had sat her down at the breakfast table while she was still in her jammies. Neither of them had food in front of them, which was usually a bad sign. And her mother, normally quite put together, was still in her bathrobe. Another bad sign. Her parents put on fake smiles. Even worse. Then they announced that her father had gotten a job in California, and that they were moving after the end of the school year. Jasmine didn't hear anything they said after that.

So over the summer, when Bella came to visit in June, she wasn't in LaPush to witness any of the hand holding or giggling or tickling that normally made her so sad. And two weeks after Bella left town, she wasn't there when Sarah Black was hit by a drunk driver. She wasn't there to see the beautiful smile disappear from Jacob's face, nor was she there to notice the letter from Bella that he carried in his pocket for weeks after her death, the one that almost turned into tissue paper since he never went anywhere without it. She heard about the accident a few months later when her mother's brother Harry came to visit, though, and she sat down to write a letter to Jacob herself until she realized she didn't know his address.

She didn't see Jacob Black again for another eight years. But when she did, all of her old feelings came back, intensified by teenage hormones. And later, all things considered, it should not have been so much of a surprise when Jasmine Hudson imprinted on Jacob Black.


	2. Chapter 1

X-x-x-x-X  
September  
X-x-x-x-X

Bella's nineteenth birthday is a stark contradiction to her eighteenth.

She doesn't wear a fancy dress, but her favorite pair of skinny jeans, simple red tee and a cute matching hoodie.

She doesn't have to eat alone, or with her companions staring at her in fascination. This time, her friends and family eat more food than she can consume in a week.

She doesn't have to celebrate with her father separately. He drives her to the bonfire on First Beach and gets rather drunk with her boyfriend's dad before allowing Sam Uley to drive him home. He is drunk enough, in fact, to ride locked in the backseat of his own cruiser after he and Billy decide that it would be the funniest thing either of them has done in years.

At this party, Bella doesn't cut herself on one of her presents, but she does almost break the one Charlie gives her before even getting it out of the box. She unwraps a brand new laptop, but trips on her way to hug her father in thanks and nearly throws it into the fire. Only the werewolf reflexes of Seth Clearwater save it from the flames.

And most importantly, Bella isn't afraid for a single moment of her nineteenth birthday, and there are no bizarre crises for her to feel inappropriately guilty over. The only thing she feels bad about is not preparing quite enough cookies to satisfy the entire pack, but Jacob and Leah had pulled her out of the kitchen hours ago claiming that it was not acceptable to spend one's birthday doing prep work for one's own party.

Still, there are a few similarities to her eighteenth birthday.

Alice Cullen still gives her something extravagant and impractical, a pair of absurdly high Manolo Blahnik stilettos that she is certain she can't wear without falling. But then she sees the glazed look in Jacob's eyes as he imagines her wearing them (and probably nothing else). She doesn't know exactly what he's thinking, but it triggers an inappropriate thought of her own, that maybe she can just wear them lying down only, and figures that even if the sharp heels poke him in the butt that he won't mind a bit. At that moment she spots Leah smirking at her astutely. Could everyone read her mind except Edward? She flushes bright red in response.

The year before, she had been embarrassed by the sheer expense of some the presents she received. She is once again embarrassed, this time even more so, but for a completely different reason. She opens a suspicious-looking pink box from Leah and chokes when she lifts the tissue paper away to reveal a set of handcuffs lined with pink faux fur. She tries to slam the lid back down before anyone else can see, but fails. At least Charlie is too drunk to notice, although he wonders to himself why the pack is howling with laughter.

This year, as during her last, her boyfriend takes her out into the woods. But this time it is to strip her clothes off in relative privacy and make her moan with pleasure, rather than to leave her lost and broken hearted.

Someone also tries to bite her on her birthday for the second year in a row (and this time he succeeds). It is a deepening of the mark on her left shoulder, sustained when her aforementioned boyfriend is buried deep inside her and they are sharing an overwhelming orgasm. Instead of being an almost deadly injury that isolates her from her loved ones, this bite only strengthens her bond with Jacob.

Afterward, when they are both fully clothed, but still wrapped together sitting on their driftwood log, Jacob pulls a little bag out of his pocket. Bella used to hate getting presents, but this is Jacob. He isn't going to give her something overwrought or overdone, or something she will feel is too fragile for her to touch. "Still hate getting presents?" he asks.

"Not from you, Jake," she answers. "Never from you. But it probably has something to do with your skill in gift giving. I could maybe have done without the handcuffs," she laughs.

He aims his sexiest smirk at her. "That's what you say now, Bells. Wait until we try them out," he growls. Then he nips at her neck with his lips and teeth until he has her moaning again. Every spot his skin touches hers sends vibrations through her. She nearly drops the little bag in the sand, but he whips his hand out reflexively to grab it on its way down. He coughs and hands it back to her, looking almost as sheepish as she does. "Just grabbed it out of habit, Bells. It's not breakable."

She presses a soft kiss to his lips and leans back enough to see him as she opens the drawstring. She turns the bag over in her palm, and out tumbles a hand braided leather bracelet. Polished wooden beads are interwoven through the strands, and from one end hangs a carved wooden charm. It portrays a sun interlocked with a crescent moon. It is delicate, heartfelt, and the perfect gift. He begins, "I can put the wolf charm on the other side of this if you want. And, um, the wood is from this log," he gestures to the log upon which they rest. His voice drops to the low, husky baritone that makes Bella's knees weak. "It's a little repetitive, seeing as I already gave you my mom's ring. But I hope you like it anyway. It's a promise, honey. That I'll always be here for you. That I'll love you for the rest of my life. The sun and the moon, well, for a long time I thought I'd be alone in the dark. When I first phased, I felt like such a freak. I felt like a monster who could never be loved by anybody." A lump forms in Bella's throat. That Jake could ever feel like a monster, like anything less than beloved, is a tragedy she helped create but will never allow to happen again. He presses his forehead against hers. "And you, you were like the moon in the sky for me. A gentle source of light guiding my way. And then you figured it all out, and you accepted me, no strings attached, everything that I had become. You had told me I was the sun to you, and to me you were the moon. But then all that chaos happened, you ran off, and then they tried to take you from me. And I felt like the sun in the sky, forever chasing the moon, but always on the opposite side of the planet. Like I'd never catch up. I thought we'd just orbit each other forever."

She fingers the charm and murmurs, "But these, this sun and this moon, they're locked together."

He nods. "I finally got you, baby. And I'm not ever gonna let go."

"Good," she whispers back, slipping the bracelet on. She has matching scars on each wrist now, reminders of Edward and James. Now, she has a physical reminder of her love, her savior, resting against each one. She kisses him breathless. Her lips tingle when they part.

Hand in hand, they head back toward the fire, now just embers. Bella hopes there is no one left there. With the pack's super sensitive sense of smell, she would prefer to take a shower before seeing any of them again. Futile, she supposes, as they all know why she and Jacob snuck off in the first place. Hopefully none of them will actually say anything to her. Jacob senses her nervousness and squeezes her hand reassuringly. How does he do that, she wonders. He has always been in tune with her, has always been able to read her like a book. But lately, it has been even more than that.

In the dim light, she sees a single figure slumped over several feet away from the dying fire. "Hey, Paul," Jacob calls softly.

Paul is alone. Everyone else left when it became clear that Jacob and Bella were going to be gone a while. "Hey," he replies in a flat tone. "Happy birthday, Bella." He couldn't be less enthusiastic if he were consoling her at a funeral.

"You doing okay, man?" Jacob asks.

Paul shrugs. He doesn't particularly feel like talking about it, but there is no point in hiding his thoughts. Everyone knows what is bothering him, whether or not they're phased in. "I thought she'd be here tonight, that's all."

"Her faculty advisor moved their meeting," Jacob reassures him. He feels guilty; he should have told Paul as soon as he found out, but right after Rachel called the house to tell him, Leah showed up telling him he needed to stop Bella from cooking all the food for her own party. "She's just late." He turns to Bella. "She's sorry she missed your party, Bells, but she's still coming, even if she missed the festivities."

Paul visibly perks up, sitting up straighter. "When's she getting in?" Paul hates the desperate edge to his voice, but he is unable to tone it down.

"What time is it?" Jacob asks.

"Uh, one AM, I think," Paul answers.

"Should be here by now. If not, it means she couldn't get a spot on the ferry at the last minute." By the time Jacob has finished his sentence, Paul has already jumped to his feet. Bella tries to stifle a grin. Paul couldn't be more obvious if he was in wolf form and wagging his tail. He obviously wants to run straight to the Blacks' house. "It's kind of late now, don't you think?" Jacob asks gently.

Paul's posture visibly shrinks. "Yeah. I guess it is."

Bella asks, "How long has it been since you've seen her?"

"Almost two weeks." Rachel's roadtrip with her friends lasted just over two weeks, which was the longest Paul had gone without seeing her since he had imprinted. It was agony on every level: emotional, psychological, and physical, made even worse by the fact that he knew that a romantic rival had accompanied her. He had helped her move into her new apartment in Seattle when she got back. She let him stay on her new pullout couch for the duration of the visit. Sometimes, lying awake on the uncomfortably thin mattress, he had to hold onto it with both hands to keep himself from creeping down the hallway to her bedroom. The wolf pulled him, but the man knew how poorly this would be received, and stayed in control. Despite that and the sharp springs poking into his back, he slept better with her nearby than he could without her presence. His own otherwise comfortable bed may as well have been a bed of nails without her in it, or at least near it.

She had let him stay until her classes started, and Jacob had deferred his patrols, but she sent him home once the semester started. He had not seen her since, as the next weekend had been occupied by orientation activities and TA meetings she was unable to miss. Jacob didn't have to ask to see the effect the separation had on his packmate. Dark circles appeared under his eyes. His shoulders took on a pronounced droop. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. His temper, short to begin with, flipped on a hair trigger. He moved more slowly than usual, and his normally ravenous appetite dwindled down to that of a normal teenage boy.

After five days, Jacob had asked his sister to call Paul periodically just to check in. She agreed despite her own concerns that they would probably only have awkward, stilted conversations. Jacob saw Paul the next day and noticed that he looked slightly better. But not being able to visit her for the first weekend caused a pain in his chest so strong that his brothers swore they could almost feel it radiating into their own.

Paul continues, "You know, I think my body figured it out when she got to La Push. My chest started hurting a little less about an hour ago. I thought I was just getting used to it."

Keeping Bella's small hand in his, Jacob steps toward Paul and claps him on the shoulder. "We're on our way back to the house right now. How 'bout we all see if she's still up?"

Paul breathes out a huge sigh of relief and nods. "Yeah. I won't wake her up if she's sleeping." He would obviously rather sprint there, but he keeps his pace slow so that Bella can keep up, and on the way, mentally talks his wolf out of trying to climb in Rachel's bedroom window if she has already gone to bed.

Jacob asks, "Is it getting any better?"

"Yeah," Paul nods. "Hurts less."

Bella can't help but ask. "What does it feel like?"

His answer is immediate, clipped, and short. "Like a vacuum. Like a black hole." Bella remembers this feeling. It sounds an awful lot like the ache in her center when Edward left her, or worse yet, when she drove Jacob away. She suspects that the effect of the imprint probably makes it ten times worse for Paul than it was for her. Paul takes a deep breath. "But it's getting better." They are hundreds of yards away from the house, but even Bella can see that it is brightly lit inside. Paul has to actively restrain himself from running toward it. His face splits into a wide smile when he sees her car outside. He speaks too softly for Bella to hear, but Jacob understands when he says, "I can breathe again."

Bella picks up her her speed on Paul's behalf, and soon all three of them walk in the front door. Jacob immediately calls out, "Rach, I brought the birthday girl to see you, and we found Paul on the way."

They hear a shuffle and a clunk, and Rachel emerges from her bedroom. "Bella, happy birthday! I'm so sorry I missed your party!" She moves forward to pull Bella into a hug. It is less crushing than Jacob's, but apparently bear hugs are a Black family habit. Jacob bends down to kiss his sister on the cheek and wrap both Bella and Rachel in his long arms at the same time, causing both the girls to laugh. Paul stands stiffly by the door, fists opening and closing. Rachel starts to stick her hand out, but halfway through the gesture changes her mind and reaches up to give Paul a gentle hug. He stares blankly at her for a second before his entire body relaxes into hers, and he heaves an audible sigh of relief. The stiff tension holding him up rolls off him like so many beads of mercury.

When he finds his voice, all he says is, "Hey," into her hair.

She pulls away, and he lets her go reluctantly. Just to give herself something else to do, Rachel returns to Bella and links their arms, drawing her into the kitchen. "I really thought I was going to be able to make it, Bella. But at three o'clock my advisor called and moved a meeting from next Monday to this evening. She's having some kind of family emergency and was being kind enough to fit me in before she leaves town, so I couldn't really say no."

"It's no problem," Bella answers honestly. Normally she would have told Rachel to simply stay in Seattle for the weekend, but she knows that the bigger reason Rachel was coming home has little to do with her.

"Can I take you lunch tomorrow to make up for it?" Rachel asks. Jacob glances between Paul and his sister. He knows that Paul was hoping to spend the entire weekend with Rachel, but also knows his sister still feels overwhelmed by the imprint. Bella is the perfect person to talk to about it.

Jacob jumps in with a compromise. "That sounds like a good idea, right Bells? Maybe you both can come back for dinner later, and we'll grill? The weather will only be good for that for a little longer. It's supposed to rain for the entire rest of the week, just like always. But tomorrow's still clear, supposedly. Bring your old man, too. His hangover should be gone by then," he laughs. He turns to Paul. "You're a pyro just like the rest of us. Want to help me manage the fire?"

Paul accepts readily, and Rachel shoots her brother a thankful and relieved glance. It is a good solution. Paul gets to see her, but she gets the protective effect of family all around them to buffer any tension they might have.

"Ooh," Rachel exclaims. "Jake told me you don't like presents, but I swear, I didn't go overboard or anything." She dashes to her room and returns with a blue box tied with a dark brown bow. Bella pulls the end of the ribbon open and lifts the lid to find gourmet chocolates in the shape of seashells. "You make that great spicy chocolate, and the ones with the red striping on them have some chili in them. And they reminded me of all those shells you and Jake used to pick up on the beach. They're from a neat little candy shop I found in my new neighborhood."

Bella thanks Rachel warmly and realizes that she doesn't mind receiving gifts nearly as much as she has always let on. She just doesn't like receiving extravagant presents that are better intended for other people, like the Cullens always gave her. Charlie never really knew what to get her when she was a child; he always thought of her as being younger than she was, so every year she opened a present from him that would have suited her better the year before. Her mother always went overboard, and Bella knew how tight their budget was, so could never fully enjoy what she was given. But the Blacks are apparently very good at gift giving. She looks to Jacob, who gazes at her with a soft expression on his face. "Happy birthday, honey," he smiles at her.

And it is. Last year, she was so upset to be aging while Edward held still, forever seventeen. With Jacob at her side, aging or not, the prospect of growing up doesn't seem quite so frightening. And after the opportunity was nearly stolen for her, she cannot be sad about being given a day to celebrate her life with those she loves. After all, Jacob, Rosalie and the pack put their lives on the line to give her the chance to evolve and mature. She resolves not to take it for granted.

Then she notices Paul and Jacob both eyeing her chocolate. She picks one out, pops it in her mouth, and hands over the box. "It tastes better when it's shared, doesn't it?" Rachel asks her, and Bella agrees before opening her mouth for an involuntary yawn.

After humming his satisfaction around a mouthful of chocolate, Jacob says, "I'd better get my girl tucked into her bed before she falls asleep at the kitchen table." He stands up and holds his hand out to Bella. She takes it and rises, glancing at Paul. They are all wondering the same thing. Is he going to sleep in the woods outside the Black home? He isn't on patrol; Jared has taken the night shift tonight.

Rachel looks down at her own hands in her lap before visibly squaring her shoulders and making a decision. She turns to Paul. "It is awfully late to be going home. I wouldn't want you to have to go out there yourself. Do you want to crash on the couch tonight?" It is a flimsy excuse, of course. Paul could be home in minutes, and the thought that anything on the Rez tonight could pose a threat to him is ludicrous. But he jumps at the chance to stay near Rachel.

"Yeah, do you mind? I'm bushed."

Jacob breaks in. "I'm not using my bed tonight. There's fresh sheets in the closet. Just sleep in my room. It's more comfortable than that old couch, although not by much," he chuckles.

Bella drops her hand from his and crosses her arms across her chest, arching her brow and jutting out her hip in an exaggerated expression of disdain. "And just where do you think you'll be sleeping then?"

"Your bed, of course," he smirks.

"Who gave you permission to sleep in my bed?" she feigns annoyance.

He tips his head down and peers up at her through his long lashes, shooting his best puppy dog look her way. "You're not gonna make me sleep in the woods tonight, are you honey? It's cold and lonely on the hard ground."

"Hmm... I'll think about it on the way back," she replies, replacing her hand in his and leading him outside to her truck. "Night, guys."

"Happy birthday," Rachel and Paul answer in unison.

As soon as they reach the car, Jacob lifts her up in his arms and backs her up against the cab, bracing her so that he can kiss her deeply. "Mmm..." he hums into her mouth before whispering against her lips, "That chocolate sure does taste good."

She smiles, leans forward, and tucks her nose into his neck, inhaling the scent of pine needles, earth, and spring rain that characterizes him. She reaches out her tongue to take delicate laps against skin, and he responds with a rumbling purr from deep in his chest. Through their clothing, she feels him harden between her legs, so she shifts her hips against his. "You're insatiable, Jacob. It's been less than two hours."

"Two hours too long, then." His breath stirs her hair.

She squirms against him more for effect, but can't resist the yawn that wells up from her belly. He chuckles, "I think I really do need to tuck you into bed, honey."

"Promise you'll stay?" she mumbles into his clavicle.

She can hear the grin in his voice as he walks her around to the passenger door. "So I don't have to sleep on the ground outside your window?"

"Like a stray puppy at the back door? No, I'd rather have the puppy curled up with me in bed."

He opens the door and sets her down on her feet, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. "So I'm a puppy now, huh? Not a big, bad wolf?"

She slides into the cab and sends him a sly look. "I'm pretty sure I saw the big bad wolf in the woods earlier." She reaches around to touch the mark on her shoulder through her clothes. "Got close enough that I got bitten."

He shuts the door and leans in through the window, gazing at her with his bedroom eyes. "How's it feel?" he asks softly.

"Amazing, Jacob," she says sincerely. "But now I'm ready to cuddle with my puppy dog."

He kisses her sweetly on the lips and jogs around to the driver's side door, hopping in and starting the car. "And your dad is even drunk enough that we can probably sleep in for a bit." He heads to Forks, tucking her under his right arm. She falls asleep within seconds. When they arrive, he carries her into the house bridal style, undresses her without waking her at all, strips down to his own basketball shorts, and slides in next to her. He falls asleep serenaded by the sounds of her father's loud snores. She doesn't pull away from his embrace for the rest of the night.

X-x-x-x-X

Bella's bladder pulls her out of an otherwise deep sleep after the sun rises. Her mouth feels full of cotton. A heavy, hot arm and leg pin her to her small bed. She manages to worm her way out from underneath Jacob's arm, but she falls out of bed with a little, "Oof," trying to escape from under his leg. The thump startles Jacob awake, and he leans over the side of the bed, peering at her blearily. She is distracted from the little throb in her hip by his mussed appearance. His hair is starting to grow out a little, for her benefit, and it sticks up in every direction. He blinks at her with a glassy expression and slightly parted lips, clearly not fully awake. It makes him look even younger than he is. She smiles up at him from the floor, and he smiles right back at her. He's adorable. Breaking away from Sam's pack and letting loose his Alpha had aged his appearance very slightly. His face has lost what little baby fat it had left, revealing his strong, angled jaw and prominent cheekbones. He normally looks several years older than she, and all man. But right now his expression is that of a happy little boy.

"Watcha doin' down there?" he asks, his voice thick with sleep.

"Well," she answers saucily, "There's this giant lump taking up all the space in my bed. It's more roomy down here."

He looks around. "I don't see any giant lump."

She crawls back onto the bed and pushes him on his back, straddling his legs. "I see two giant lumps," she says, gesturing at his large form in general, as well as the growing bulge in his shorts. He is only at half mast so far, but soon he'll be peeking out of the top of his shorts. She decides then and there that whatever little boy look he was sporting seconds ago is rapidly dissipating. "One of them's getting bigger," she says, running her fingers lightly over him and admiring his shirtless, tightly muscled upper body.

"Giant, huh?" he smirks, lifting his hips up toward her.

"Mmm. Getting there," she answers, lowering herself to press a gentle kiss against his throat. His chest rumbles a pleased, wordless response until she slides off him, stepping onto the floor.

"Hey, where ya goin'?" He reaches out for her, but he is still foggy with sleep and doesn't catch her in time.

She smacks her lips. "Toothbrush. Bathroom."

He sits up and leans toward her. "Who cares about morning breath? Get back here," he answers.

She snorts. "I'm not leaving forever, Jacob. Don't you have to go, too?"

He falls back on the sheets with a pathetic groan, gesturing at himself. "You have to help me with this before you go. It's not like I can pee with an erection anyway."

"Just think about Paul and your sister for a minute," she laughs. "It'll go away for long enough, then you can meet me back in here."

"Oh, yuck. Okay, that'll work. Promise we can pick up where we're leaving off?"

She smirks at him. "Don't think too much about it, or you'll never get rid of that thing long enough to pee." She escapes down the hallway and hears him huffing a protest behind her. It only takes her a couple minutes to empty her bladder and brush her teeth. She even stops to run a brush through her hair. She peeks at Charlie's closed door on her way back to her room, but can't hear anything useful inside.

She opens her door to find Jacob sitting on her bed popping the last bite of a blueberry muffin into his mouth. "You're slow," he whines.

She checks the clock. "I took three minutes!"

He grins broadly at her. A couple crumbs are stuck to his bottom lip, and she wants to lick them off. "In three minutes, I went to the bathroom, found mouthwash and now have minty fresh breath, and ate two muffins."

"Unfair werewolf speed," she protests as she returns to the bed and straddles his legs again.

"Slow human," he teases, a glint in his eye.

She points to his returning erection and says, "You don't want to rush everything, you know."

He nods and wraps his arms around her waist, drawing her close. "Hmm. Point taken. Don't think you've ever complained about my endurance, though." She can't reply due to his lips sliding against hers. He buries one hand in her hair and keeps the other firmly around her waist. The kiss turns from teasing and soft to deep and passionate over the course of the next several minutes, until she is panting and squirming against him.

She separates just long enough to mumble, "It's giant again, Jake." He chuckles against her lips and captures them again. His hands slip down to palm her bottom to pull her tight, and he tilts his hips up against her until they both groan. She relishes his form under hers and grasps his broad shoulders as she kisses him.

She could do this all day. There is no rush any longer. For once there is no panic, no edge of desperation, no threat looming over their heads. She thought she liked the rush of danger. Naively, Edward's inherently predatory nature combined with his Victorian restraint appealed to her. She romanticized the thought that they had some sort of unique bond. That her status as his singer and his inability to read her mind somehow meant they were destined for one another, that something about her and her alone quelled his inner demon. She believed that there was passion simmering underneath his cool facade. That is, until he revealed his inner demon to be the greater part of him.

But it is here with her childhood playmate that she has discovered what real passion is. There is a feral beast inside Jacob, but rather than being his prey, she is the animal's mate. The wolf's truest desire. Jacob could break her body and spirit as easily as Edward could. But his instinct is to protect, nurture, and pleasure her, while Edward had to fight his body's inherent and irreversible urge to feed from her. She still doesn't doubt that somewhere, underneath all the layers of deception, was a real person who cared for her. Edward loved her as best he could. When she was new to love, his attentions were exciting and thrilling. She layered her romantic notions over him just as he did over her, the only being he had met in a hundred years whose mind was closed to him, and whom he could therefore project his desires upon.

And were it not for Jacob, for her spirit's true partner, exposing his raw soul to her for rejection after rejection, had he not stood firm with tears in his eyes and truth in his voice, where would she be? Who would she be? What would she be? A monster, surely.

But she is not. She is human. She is alive. She is warm flesh. Her right hand slips down to hold still over his heart, and she feels the rhythm of its strong, gentle beat under her palm. She rests her left hand against her own breast, feeling her own pulse underneath. Startled, she pulls away far enough to look him in the eye.

"What is it, honey?" he peeks at her through heavily lidded eyes.

"Our hearts, Jake."

He smiles softly at her, placing his large hands over her small ones. "Mine beats for you, Bells. Always." He leans forward to kiss her again, but she stops him.

"No. Well, yes, but feel." She slides her hands out from underneath his.

"You're right!" His eyes widen as understanding dawns. "They're the same."

"They're in sync. Is it just a coincidence?" she asks.

He shakes his head. "The exact same rhythm. I don't know, baby. I noticed it once before, right after I ran home from the lake house. When I picked you up I could hear it, but I was so excited to have you back in my arms, all safe and sound, that I forgot about it immediately after. Maybe in thirty seconds it'll go back to normal, and we'll feel silly."

She smiles at him and scoots down, pressing her lips against his skin along the way, to rest her ear against his chest so she can listen. He holds her that way for several minutes, and she puts her fingers to her neck to feel her pulse.

"It's still the same, isn't it?" she says quietly.

"Mm hmm," he hums in reply. "Wonder what that means?"

She sits back to look at him fully. "That last dream we had together, when you were still at the lake and I was sleeping in your bed, it felt different than the others."

He nods at her. "It was even better."

"It was more," she agrees.

"All the others felt just like real life. Like we were in the same room, really touching each other," he muses, linking his left hand with her right, and lightly brushing the fingers of his right hand down her arm.

"Right," she says, looking at his hands touching her skin. "Just like this. It felt like us, right here, together. Except the last time."

"I don't even think I have words for it, Bells," he gazes at her reverently.

"Me neither. Closest thing I can think of is that it felt like... like light would feel if you could touch it." Her voice is hushed.

"I could hardly tell we were even separate. It was like we were..." he trails off.

"One. One person. Not two. It was the best thing I've ever felt in my whole life, Jake," she murmurs as he nods at her.

"Yeah." His voice is raspy. "And I still felt it after. When I had just come home and you ran out to hug me. Your skin on mine, it still felt that way. More than just touching."

"Do you think that's when it started? Our hearts beating in the same rhythm?"

"Uh huh. I think it was."

"What does it mean, Jake?" she is a little nervous contemplating the implication.

"I don't know, honey. But it makes me happy," he admits.

She smiles at him. "Me too. Not just happy. Like everything is just heightened."

He tugs at her waist. "And every time we've been together since then, baby, has been just mind blowing."

"Which is impressive," she leans forward to kiss him. "That it could possibly have gotten even better than it already was."

He tangles his fingers through her hair and cups the base of her skull as he presses his forehead to hers. "Do you see? We were meant for each other."

"You were right all along, Jake," she whispers against his lips.

He tilts his head and captures her lips again. She sighs and relaxes into him, humming a contented sound. This. This is where she always wants to be. His heat radiates through her. His hand slips down to her lower back, where he rubs gentle circles through her top. Soon enough, his hand slips under the fabric to brush against her soft skin.

Every time he touches her, he marvels at the sensation of her smooth, cool skin against his. For as long as he can remember, her touch has produced a little tingle at every point of contact. For the past month, it has been even stronger than before, resulting in even the most innocent contact to focus his attention on her like a laser. And he cannot get enough of her skin. He gradually widens the circle he rubs on her back.

When he returned from driving away the Volturi, their first touch of skin to skin was electric. She finally felt what he felt. He had told her once before about the heightened, tingling sensation that he experienced whenever they touched, all the way back into childhood. She thought he was speaking figuratively, but realized he was not. She wants to feel it again. And in a situation like this, senses primed to begin with, bodies close, wanting only to get closer, she wants as much of his flesh against hers. In her. She wants to recapture the energy they shared.

He can smell her arousal, and he growls in response. His enormous length aches between his legs. It has been less than twelve hours since he was last inside her, but it may as well have been weeks, he wants her so badly. He lowers his hands down to cup her ass. He holds her in place as he grinds against her core, and they moan together in response.

She sits up just far enough to lift off her shirt. Before it even hits the ground, Jacob has bent his head and pulled her up to wrap his lips around her right nipple, suckling gently. She throws her head back with a strangled gasp, and he draws her more deeply into his mouth.

But suddenly, she finds herself flipped onto her back, shirt tucked swiftly over her head, door wide open. She blinks in confusion. "Leah enjoyed herself too, honey. Too bad Rach missed all the fun. It was a great excuse to get everyone together. I can drive you over if you want to get ready," Jacob smiles and grins from his new perch in her rocking chair. Somehow, he has materialized a shirt from somewhere.

He waves at the open doorway, and she finally understands. "Mmph," Charlie mumbles as he passes. He looks like death warmed over.

"Morning, Chief Swan," says Jacob brightly. "Want some breakfast?" he offers.

"Advil. Water. Bullet in the brain," Charlie groans, heading for the medicine cabinet.

After they hear the bathroom door shut, Jacob slides back into bed with Bella. "I'm not going to push my luck, honey. I figured it would look less suspicious if I was in here with the door open when he came by," he whispers into her ear. There isn't anything sexy about what he's saying, but shivers run down her spine anyway. He presses kisses to her forehead and then hops off the bed. She pouts at the distance between them, so he grins in response. "Want me to help you get dressed?" he asks with a twinkle in his eye.

"Only if you want Charlie to shoot you," she answers.

Fifteen minutes later, Charlie is back in bed, and Jacob and Bella are in the truck heading for La Push. Bella takes her place tucked under his right arm as he drives with his left. He lazily squeezes her arm in his hand, and she feels contented and warm. As they cross the border into La Push, her phone rings. An enthusiastic Alice chirps in her ear. "Happy Birthday, Bella! I wanted to call yesterday, but thought you'd probably be busy."

"Thanks, Alice. We had a bonfire on the beach. Thanks for the shoes. They're pretty, but I'm not sure I'm able to walk in them."

"They're not for walking, silly!"

Jacob smirks and growls low, "Told you so."

Alice laughs on the other end of the line. "He gets it. Did you get anything else fun?"

Bella answers, "A laptop from Charlie, and Jacob made me a bracelet."

Jacob interrupts, yelling, "Pink handcuffs. Leah gave her pink handcuffs!"

Alice coos, "Oooh, I'm jealous. There isn't anything strong enough that I can find lying around to tie Jaz down."

Bella blushes while Jacob tilts his head toward the phone, "I don't think those things are strong enough to hold me either." He leaves the rest of the sentence unspoken, but Bella can see it in his eyes. He has every intention of using them on her.

The voice on the other end of the line changes. "Are they embarrassing you, Bella?" asks Rosalie.

"Are you going to rescue me from this conversation? It's the best birthday present I could get!"

In the background, Bella hears Alice say to Rosalie, "Oh, shush. You and Emmett are worse than me and Jasper any day."

Rosalie answers, "That might be true, but you don't hear me bragging about it to everyone! Sorry, Bella. No one knows how to hold a civilized conversation anymore."

"Where are you guys right now?" Bella changes the subject.

"New Hampshire. Esme wanted to check on all the properties, so we're in a different house every week," Rosalie replies.

"You and Emmett still heading to Africa?"

"Yeah. We moved up our tickets." Rosalie's tone changes a bit.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Jacob looks at her in concern.

"Nothing in particular so far," Rosalie answers, "Just being cautious."

Jacob speaks up. "Are you getting blowback from the Italian leeches?" He was worried about that possibility. After Rosalie did so much to help him and Bella, he doesn't want any negative repercussions for her. The Volturi think that he and Bella are dead, but they could be concerned that Rosalie betrayed them since she showed up to clean up the mess left behind.

There is a slight pause on the other end. Alice answers, "I haven't seen anything bad happen to Rosalie. But everything is shifting. The Denali coven heard that the Volturi seem to be cleaning up other messes around the world. We're all going to lay low for a while, probably head to Alaska to relax for a while. And Rosalie and Emmett aren't going to make any waves while they're in Africa."

"So everyone's okay?" Bella asks, still worried.

"We're all doing fine, Bella. Don't worry about us. Emmett and I will have a relaxing vacation and enjoy some big game hunting. We'll be back before you know it," Rosalie reassures her. "Everyone here says happy birthday, and we hope you have a very good year." They say their goodbyes just as the truck pulls up to the Jacob's home.

They open the door to the little red house together, Bella's hand on the knob and his wrapped around her waist. It makes it a bit hard to walk, frankly, but she isn't complaining. As he turns to shut the door, he tugs on her. She turns around and sees him pointing into the pines across from the house. She sees a bald eagle high in a pine. It flies away when she spots it, but Jacob stares after it long after it is gone. She wants to ask about the bird, but a sigh from the kitchen distracts her. Rachel sits at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a novel. The rest of the house is quiet.

"Morning, Rach," says Jacob as he kisses his sister on the crown of her head. She smiles up at him.

"Hi, guys. No one's up but me, as you can see."

"The dads gave themselves quite a night, I think, and they're both paying for it now," Bella answers. "But what about Paul?"

Jacob sits across from his sister but doesn't meet her eyes. "I can hear him breathe. Still asleep too."

"He looked tired last night." Rachel tries unsuccessfully to make eye contact with her brother. Jacob just makes a noncommittal noise. "How has he been, Jake?" Jacob shrugs. He doesn't want her to feel bad. "Just tell me the truth."

He sighs, and Bella goes to the counter to put on a fresh pot of coffee. "Not good. The longer you're apart, the more he gets a pain in his chest. When you called him, I think it helped. I think it was pretty rough not to see you last weekend. But thanks for letting him sleep here last night. I think it was probably the best night's rest he had since he helped you move in."

"Which is probably why he's still out right now?" Bella asks, and Jacob nods in response.

"On the other hand, he's actually going to classes and paying attention now," Jacob says as he runs his hand through his hair.

Rachel tilts her head. "He wasn't before?"

Jacob shakes his head. "The patrol schedule doesn't exactly work well with classes, Rach. Particularly not if we still need to sleep occasionally. I don't think he was exactly a stellar student before phasing, either, and wolfing out didn't help any. But he's focused now. Has a long term goal."

"Me," Rachel looks at her coffee cup, now empty. Bella refills it.

Jacob hunches over the table. "I think even if he could just move near you it would be easier on him."

Rachel sighs. "I should have stayed, shouldn't I?"

Jacob draws one of her hands into his. "No, Rach. You're doing what's right for you. It's what you want, it's what dad wants, it's what I want. It's even what Paul wants. He told you to go back, remember? You can't let the imprint dictate your whole life."

"But is he going to be okay?" she asks.

"Yeah," Jacob answers. "Two weeks didn't kill him, you know."

"But it wouldn't hurt to keep it down to one, huh?"

Jacob huffs. "Probably wouldn't hurt, no." Then his stomach rumbles loudly.

"You just ate two muffins!" exclaims Bella.

"That was, like, an hour ago, and it might as well have been two crackers," he retorts. He stands to dig in the refrigerator. "I'm gonna make an omelet. Might even make one for Paul if I'm feeling generous." He pulls out two full cartons of eggs. "You guys still planning on going out?"

Rachel stands. "I need some girl talk. I'm just gonna go get ready." She moves quietly down the hallway, and Bella wraps her arms around Jacob's middle as he cracks eighteen eggs into a large mixing bowl. She squeezes tightly.

"I'm not sure I'm any good at girl talk," her voice is muffled from being pressed into his back.

"Well," he chuckles, "You're a girl and you can talk, so I think you're golden."

"Very reassuring, Jake," she says dryly.

He sets down his spoon and turns to envelop her in his own arms. "You're perfect, Bella. Who else is she going to talk to about this stuff? Her girlfriends in Seattle? I'm not even sure how many people she knows there yet, seeing as she's only lived there a few weeks. And even if she did, what's she gonna tell people?" He kisses the top of her head.

"And I don't think she's very comfortable talking to Emily or Kim about it. She's not exactly in their position."

"Exactly," he answers. "She wants to talk to somebody a little more objective than they are."

"I don't mean to sound unfriendly, Jake, you know that, right?" She leans back far enough to look at him.

"Of course not, honey."

"I just don't want to screw anything up for either of them."

He scowls a bit at that. "The imprint is what screwed things up for them. Not you. Never you."

"I'm so sorry your sister got dragged into this too." She leans forward again so she can rest her cheek against his broad, warm chest. She tries to snuggle as closely as possible, and he obliges, wrapping his arms more tightly around her.

"Me too." He sighs into her hair. "This is gonna sound weird, but I'm really glad we didn't imprint, Bells."

"I know what you mean. Before, I wished you had, but it's so much better this way," she agrees.

"It's perfect this way." She hears conviction in his tone.

"I'm never going to wonder if it's real. I'm never going to wonder if you'd have picked me if you had a choice."

His voice drops to a whisper. "There was only ever you, baby." Then he lowers his lips to hers, and she loses herself in him until they hear a throat clearing from the hallway, followed by a snicker. Bella stiffens and blushes bright red, but Jacob just laughs. When she works up the courage to turn around, Paul is leaning in the doorway to the kitchen with a shit-eating grin on his face, and Rachel stands behind him looking studiously away.

"Ready to go, Bella?" Rachel asks.

"I think she'd rather stay here, Rach, but she might want us to go out to give them a little privacy," Paul's eyes twinkle at them both.

Bella separates from Jacob not very subtly and slips by Paul to go to the front door. "Nope, I'm ready," she coughs.

"Be nice to my girl, Lahote, or I'll make all this food and just make you watch me eat it by myself," Jacob feigns seriousness and assumes a wide stance with his hands on his hips.

"Ooh, I'm so afraid of the big, bag Alpha!" Paul growls sarcastically.

Bella and Rachel slip out the front door just as Paul tackles Jacob into the refrigerator. "They seem to get along pretty well," Rachel muses, "if all the roughhousing is really as playful as they make it out to be."

"Oh, you have no idea," Bella answers. She gets into the passenger side of Rachel's car as Rachel starts the ignition. "They really didn't used to, partly due to me I think. But they've bonded over you."

"Why did they disagree about you?" Rachel asks.

"Edward. The Cullens," Bella answers. She isn't sure exactly what to say. Looking back, she is ashamed at how she fell into Edward's trap, and how she nearly managed to get everyone killed. "Paul thought I was bad for everyone. And he was sort of right," she sighs and looks out the window.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Rachel answers. "Seems to me like Edward did a pretty thorough job of tricking you. And the rest of them really stepped up to help. They don't seem bad at all, really."

Bella looks at Rachel with wide eyes. She is so used to everyone around her despising all the Cullens, with the possible exception of Seth until Edward tried to kill him. Rosalie, of course, has earned respect within the pack, as has Carlisle. But the very existence of vampires has upturned the lives of the whole pack and their families, and Bella is startled to hear Rachel's honest opinion. "You really think so?"

"Well, Rosalie put herself on the front line, right? She was just as much at risk as anybody else. And she and the doctor really helped Seth and Brady, didn't they? Went against Edward to do it, too."

"Yeah, yeah, they did," Bella answers.

"So they can't be all bad, can they?"

"No. They can't." Bella smiles in relief. "Mostly they were really good to me. Are really good to me. With the obvious exception of Edward, of course."

"And I'll bet he was really charming when he wanted to be," says Rachel astutely. Bella just nods. It is still very painful to think about him. "I can see the appeal," she says softly.

Bella nods at Rachel gratefully. She has so much guilt stored up about the mess she got herself into. She still blames herself for putting the pack on the line. For Jacob's injuries, Brady's, Seth's. She knows that they don't really blame her, not anymore. But they don't exactly sympathize either. But Rachel is different. "Their money never meant anything to me, but the other things..." She still doesn't want to admit it.

"Good looks, immortality, power," Rachel finishes for her. "Combine that with a promise of eternal love. Hell, part of me wonders why you didn't go through with it."

Bella has a ready answer for this, at least. "Jake."

Rachel smiles at her. "He really loves you."

She smiles back. "I really love him."

They ride the rest of the way in companionable silence. A few minutes later they reach their destination, a coffee shop in Forks. Bella orders a bowl of soup and half a sandwich, while Rachel gets a cappuccino and a large salad.

"So how's it been for you?" Bella opens. "I haven't had a chance to catch up with you yet."

"Really weird," Rachel sighs. "I feel like I'm getting tugged in every direction at once." Bella remembers the feeling. It wasn't the same, exactly, but being between Jacob and Edward did feel like getting ripped in two sometimes. And somehow, everyone got hurt in the process.

Bella responds, "Paul versus Trevor. Seattle versus La Push. Your career versus your family."

"Exactly. I feel like I'm being selfish by living my life. But are my plans so frivolous?"

"Of course not, Rachel. No one thinks that. Not your dad, not Jake, not even Paul. Especially not Paul."

"Then how come I feel so guilty?" Rachel asks, dropping her head into her hands.

"Because you're a good person who cares about what happens to the people you care about. That's why," Bella answers. She knows a thing or two about guilt. She knows about making commitments and breaking them. She knows that making choices causes ripple effects outward, that decisions have consequences direct and indirect, and that she herself is only a small part of a greater whole. As is Rachel. "A little guilt probably isn't a bad thing. But you may be taking it overboard," she says gently. She decides to go straight to the heart of the matter. "How's Trevor?"

Rachel gets a funny look on her face, and Bella realizes that it's a dreamy expression combined with a frown. "Confusing me."

"I'll bet. How was the trip?"

Rachel smiles now. "Fun. And awkward. But mostly fun."

"You were a little nervous about being alone with him, I remember," Bella prompts. She doesn't want to pry too much, but is intensely curious.

"I managed not to be alone with him too much," Rachel answers. "There were five of us on the trip, and I kept convincing everybody to share rooms to save on cost. So we didn't end up alone in a motel room or anything."

"So you didn't, um, you know." Bella's blush says more than words could.

Rachel's eyes twinkle at her. Leah would be teasing her mercilessly for being able to have sex but not being able to talk about it, but Rachel isn't Leah. "No. I didn't let it come up. Even if I really wanted to, I wouldn't have done anything with other people in the room, and it was easy not to be alone." Bella is a bit relieved on Paul's behalf, unfair though it might be to Rachel. "But he kissed me. Again. A lot." She flushes a bit thinking about it.

"And?"

"And he's just as good at it as I remembered. But I couldn't help but feel like I was cheating on Paul."

Bella was there when Paul met Trevor. He had spent the night phased outside the house awaiting the return of Jacob and the rest of the pack after they tricked the Volturi into leaving. He had been a bit paranoid about the vampires figuring out they had been manipulated, and couldn't bring himself to leave the house unguarded. Or that was his excuse, anyway. He had bounded inside to give them the good news in the middle of the night. Bella didn't miss the blissful, contented expression on his face when Rachel laughed her relief and threw her arms around his neck, giving him an unplanned and expressive hug. He had looked purely happy for the next several minutes until he remembered that she would be leaving soon, without him, and in the company of a rival. His mood had degenerated quickly before he went outside, where he stayed phased.

Bella had wondered if there would be a confrontation the next morning when Rachel's friends showed up the next day. She had just woken and was looking out of Jacob's bedroom window when she saw Paul stride out of the woods, shirtless as usual, and heard him enter the kitchen. Billy was already awake and deliberately kept Paul occupied with small talk while Rachel bustled about packing her things. Paul sat still at the kitchen table, vibrating with tension, eyes locked on his imprint whenever she came into view. Bella could see how difficult it was for him to let her go, to watch her prepare to leave, but he managed to hold himself in check. Rather than say something he would regret, he simply kept his mouth shut. She almost wondered why he stayed to watch her go. It would probably be torture for him. But Jacob explained later that he was physically unable to stay away.

For her part, once her friends arrived, Rachel deliberately avoided any physical contact with Trevor. Bella instantly saw why Rachel was attracted to him. Trevor was a very handsome man. His flawless skin was the color of black coffee, a striking contrast with his bright white teeth. His smile reminded of her Jacob's, as did his bright, laughing eyes. He had a strong jawline and prominent cheekbones, and a perfectly symmetric, hairless skull. He was nearly as tall as Paul and only slightly less muscular. And he didn't have any supernatural assistance to help him with his physique. When Trevor moved to hug Rachel, she swiftly handed him her suitcase instead. Bella, in what was probably a foolish move, had placed her hand on Paul's forearm, shaking with frustration, in an attempt to keep him from phasing inside the house as he watched them. He shook her off and went to sit on the back porch with his head in his hands.

They were all momentarily distracted by Jacob's return. Bella was so wrapped up in him that she missed whatever cover story the Blacks came up with to explain their excessive enthusiasm at the return of their son striding shirtless toward the house straight out of the forest. Her focus on Jacob was only broken briefly when Rachel got into her friend Abrianna's SUV and pulled away, as Jacob had instructed Paul to phase and go for a run, but made sure he wouldn't follow the car like a lost puppy.

Bella considers what to tell Rachel, and settles on what she knows of the truth. "It was rough on him, Rachel. But he survived, as you saw. Like Jacob said, it physically hurt him to be apart from you. Which was a little different than what happened when he knew you were with another guy. From what I can tell, that was a different sort of pain. But he kept it under control."

Rachel sighs heavily as their food arrives. "I almost wish I hadn't met Trevor. This would be easier if I didn't feel like I have to dump him even though he's been great. He picked up on the fact that I'm sort of keeping him at arm's length. Frankly, he isn't used to getting any resistance at all from a woman. He's sort of used to girls fawning all over him. I don't know if he thinks I'm playing hard to get, or what. But he isn't pressuring me or anything. He's been a real gentleman. He wanted to take me for this really romantic date for our inaugural date in Seattle, and I kind of put the brakes on."

"What was it?"

"There's this really gorgeous lodge that he was going to take me to. A spa retreat, basically. He had a room reserved. The sort of thing I totally go for normally."

"And the sort of place you go and spend all day in bed?" Bella asks.

"Yeah. His cousin clued me in ahead of time, so I was able to head it off. Instead we went to Pike's Place market, got fresh seafood and groceries, and went to his apartment to cook dinner. It was lower key than what he originally had planned."

"But I'll bet it was still pretty romantic."

"Yeah," Rachel sighs a little dreamily. "He picked out my favorite flowers at the market, probably Abrianna clued him in on that, and had candles everywhere in his place."

"What are your favorite flowers?" Bella asks. She wonders if he should tell Paul to even out the odds a little.

"Fire and ice roses. The outside of the petal is mostly white, but the tips are bright red, and in the center there is some yellow. He made this great paella for our dinner, and we had picked out these chocolate pastries at the market. Frankly, if it wasn't for Paul, I'd have slept with him that night. It was really romantic, and he was coming on strong. But Paul is trying so hard, and he was just there in the back of my brain."

"How was his visit to see you?"

"It was good. It really was." Rachel sounds surprised at herself. "He was really helpful. The wolf strength came in handy moving my stuff. I'd almost forgotten how annoyed I was with him from the last time we went out, the time he growled at that guy for holding the door open for me, right after we ran into one of his old flames and before he hit on you."

"The trip let you cool down, huh?" Bella asks. Rachel certainly has a temper. Hers is a match for Paul's own.

"It was good space for me even if it wasn't for him. I actually sort of missed him."

"You should tell him that."

"But I don't want to lead him on. I don't know where any of this is going yet. I still think he owes it to himself to see if he can form other relationships beyond this one with me. I mean, before last month he didn't even know who I am. He wouldn't want to be with me at all if it weren't for the imprint."

Bella frowns a bit. She doesn't know how much she should say. "That's not exactly what he told your brother."

"Oh?" Rachel looks genuinely interested.

"He knew who you were. Just from the size of your community, you know? I think he thought you were sort of out of his league."

"Well, he's still in high school, Bella. He's younger than me by more than Jake's younger than you, and not nearly as mature. I'm going for my Masters and he's starting twelfth grade."

Bella certainly can't argue with this. "Either way, I think he was already attracted to you before he imprinted."

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Me and half the girls in a thirty mile radius. But I can't deny that he's a good looking guy," Rachel sighs.

"But so is Trevor." It is easy to read what Rachel is thinking.

"Mmm. Yeah. And he's, you know, employed and doesn't live with either of his parents."

"But that will hopefully be true of Paul next year."

"You think? I'm not sure what he's going to do in the long run either. I don't think he knows."

"But his visit was okay? Did he try to kiss you?"

Rachel shakes her head vehemently. "He didn't do anything inappropriate at all. He slept on my pull out couch. We hung out, he made me laugh, he was all kinds of helpful. I let him hug me, no kissing, and his hugs are almost as good as Jake's. But I caught him looking at me a lot. Like he was starving and I was an ice cream cone." Bella nods. Jacob looks at her this way. "I have to admit, it was..."

"Hot?" Bella fills in.

"Yeah," Rachel laughs. "It was. I can't help but wonder what it would be like to be with him. Intense, probably."

"Are you sure you really want him to see other women?"

"Yeah. I am. Like I said before, at least to try to be friends. This whole forever, soulmates, cosmic thing, well, so far it hasn't exactly been all it's cracked up to be. I mean, Quil and a toddler? Sam dumping Leah for her cousin? Paul himself didn't want to imprint in the first place, right?" Bella isn't sure, but thinks this is true. She says nothing. "I do think he owes it to himself to see if he has other options. I mean, look at you and Jake. You're perfect for each other, and you're not imprinted. It would be nice for Paul to have that too, don't you think? Imprinting doesn't seem very fair to him either. Suddenly he's stuck with me, whether he actually likes me or not, until the day he dies? He deserves a say in his life, in his relationships. He shouldn't have to just do whatever I want just because of some mystical connection."

And Bella realizes that Rachel's frustration isn't all about being torn between two men or two futures. She is actually thinking of Paul's best interest in the long run as well. She wants him to be able to live the life he wants, just as she does for herself. "You care about him. You want what's best for him."

"Of course I do," Rachel answers softly.

"Maybe that's what makes you a good imprint for him."

Rachel looks skeptical. "Maybe. Hey, thanks for listening."

"Sure, sure," Bella answers. They spend the rest of their lunch on simpler topics before they head back to Jacob, Paul, and Billy.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: As always, thanks to my beta, Babs 81410, at JBNP.


	3. Chapter 2

X-x-x-x-X  
October  
X-x-x-x-X

For the first two months after tricking away the Volturi, Jacob continues to schedule double patrols. After all the threats that assaulted them over the summer, he is nervous that the Volturi will return or other nomads will appear. So he keeps two wolves on each shift at a time, at least when there are two available. The daytime shift is sparsely covered, as everyone except Leah and Sam are still in high school, and Leah herself has classes most weekdays at Peninsula. Over the past year, Sam had lost his job due to his inability to keep to a regular schedule. His status as tribal elder afforded him respect and responsibility but no means of supporting himself or his fiancée. Emily's jobs teaching art classes at the tribal school and at Peninsula Community College don't pay well, but at least come with some basic benefits and keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Because of this, Jacob offers to create a schedule in which he, Embry, Paul, Jared, and Quil would skip one day of school each weekday to cover the daytime patrol so that Sam could find a job and Leah could commute to Peninsula every day. But Sam refuses. He may have relinquished his position as Alpha, but he isn't about to let his younger brothers sacrifice their educations for him. Thankfully, Leah manages to create her class schedule such that she only has courses Monday through Thursday, and one of the other elders offers Sam part time work as the watchman for the cannery on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So Sam takes the daytime patrol every Monday through Thursday, Leah takes every Friday, and the younger wolves split all the afternoon, weekend, and nighttime shifts. Keeping up with the nighttime shifts results in some very sleep deprived, groggy teenage boys going to school the next day, but Jacob (or, more accurately, Billy) decides that tired boys going to school learn more than boys sleeping in their beds during classes.

At first, Jacob is nervous about leaving Leah and Sam alone during their weekday patrols. Although the rest of the pack is somewhat on alert and will respond to any howl as soon as possible, classes or no, he doesn't like leaving any of his pack without another wolf phased in as backup. But the daylight assists them here. Even though La Push is overcast and rainy, most nomadic vampires seem not to venture out too much during the day. And as time goes by, the Volturi fail to materialize, and everyone begins to relax.

Despite that, everyone's lives only seem to get busier. Jacob accepts more jobs working on cars than he ever had before in an attempt to save money. He isn't sure what he will get to use it for, but he desperately wants to make a comfortable future for Bella. He knows she isn't interested in material things, but he also realizes better than she does that there is nothing romantic about getting one's heat shut off in the winter due to past due bills. He would like to go to college and hopes he can at least go to Peninsula if not also obtaining a Bachelor's degree. Before he phased, his grades were good enough to get him a scholarship, and Billy had put away a little money for school. The last year had been a real drag on his academics, but he still has plenty of time to improve the rest of his transcript. But that, too, takes a toll on his already busy schedule. And in the long run, he expects his Alpha duties will interfere with his future the way Sam's did.

At the same time, Bella balances her courseload at Peninsula with as many shifts at Newton's as she can handle. With Mike going off to school, Mrs. Newton is shorthanded despite the waning of their busy summer hiking season. After an enlightening conversation with Jacob about Sam and Emily's financial situation, she takes it upon herself to put away as much money as she can. Between Charlie's college fund, her own savings from her part time job, and monetary gifts from Renee and Phil, she hopes to have a small nest egg built up by the time she finishes her time at Peninsula.

She still doesn't know what she wants to do in the long run. Jacob won't say so, but he both wants her to transfer out of Peninsula in a year or two to get the chance to get away and have the sort of college adventure that she expected when she thought she would become a Cullen, but fears not being able to join her. Jacob wants to give her everything, she knows, and if she was his only priority he probably could, between his charm, personality, brains, and work ethic. But Jacob carries the weight of his family, his pack, and his tribe. She comes first, he has made that much clear to her, but one of the reasons she loves him is that he also cares deeply for everyone around him. And there are so many people to take care of. She resolves herself to helping him help everyone else as best she can.

But it leaves her feeling a bit adrift. She thought she had all of eternity stretching before her, thought she could go anywhere as the immortal wife of Edward Cullen. Now she has only one lifetime to use, which is just as it should be. She hasn't figured out what to do with the time she is given. A part of her still wants to go have an adventure somewhere else. But Jacob may not be able to come with her. And is an adventure without Jacob one worth having? And does she really need to leave in order to make something of her life?

Periodically, she reflects on the vast differences between her life with Edward and her life with Jacob. With Edward, the whole world narrowed down to him, despite all his talk of endless possibilities. She became isolated from everyone else. But Jacob has expanded her world exponentially. He has let her into his family, his pack, and his heart. Bella finds herself a better friend and daughter than she had been before. Edward promised to show her anything and everything, but she realizes now it would all have been from the outside looking in. She would have been an eternal spectator of life, never a player. The opposite is true with Jacob. There is life in him and around him. By his side she cannot help but become intimately involved with her corner of the world.

Leah notices the change in Bella. On an October Monday morning commute to Port Angeles for classes, she keeps her right hand on the wheel, her left drumming a quick rhythm onto her armrest. The tapping of her fingers mingles with the sound of rain droplets falling on the car. "You know, Swan, you're a lot less pathetic than you used to be. It's a good thing, too, seeing as I'm trapped in this car with you for two hours every day."

Bella has learned to roll with Leah's punches. "You know, if you find my company inadequate, you can always hop out of the car and run to Peninsula in wolf form. You're pretty quick. You'd probably beat me there. Only problem is that you'd have no way to explain the twigs in your hair and dirt all over your clothes and bare feet."

Leah snickers. "My method of transportation beats yours any day. Either one. This old Camry can go, like, twice as fast as your truck. I can literally run faster than that thing can go. And when I push my speed past fifty miles per hour, none of my internal organs make sounds like death throes. Also, I am able to walk without tripping. So my legs beat your legs, and my car beats your car."

Bella protests. "Leave my car alone. She's perfect for me. And I won't defend my clumsiness, but Jacob likes my legs fine."

Leah snorts. "Because you wrap them around his waist while he screws you. They could look like sausages and he'd probably still love them, so long as you kept letting him get some."

Bella blushes but can't hold back her laughter. "Are you telling me I look like breakfast meat?"

Leah gives her an exaggerated and appraising look up and down, then turns back to the road. "I suppose not. I said 'could look like sausages'. Not 'do look like sausages'. You're closer to the color of raw chicken than you are to any sausage I've ever seen."

"Raw chicken?" Bella stifles a laugh. "At least my legs always look like human legs. And I keep them nicely shaved at all times. You, no matter how much you shave, still fursplode at least once a week and have hairy monster legs."

Leah muffles a chuckle. "I wonder if I could learn to only partly phase. Like a faun or a centaur. Keep my upper body a human woman, and my lower half wolf legs."

Bella giggles. "That would be great. You'd be like a mythical trap for unsuspecting men. A wolfmaid. Not a mermaid."

"I could sit around the forest topless with a sheet covering my lower half, lure in men with my nude upper half, and then pull the sheet when I get them close."

Bella can't hold in real laughter now. She wheezes, "Screw imprinting. That'll be how you find your true mate. A guy who keeps wanting you despite your furry wolf legs."

Leah laughs harder. "No, no. The true test will be that I'll lure him in with attractive upper body, get him all hot and bothered and ready to go. But then I'll switch. I'll make my top half my wolf, and my lower half human, so he has the chance to experience normal human pussy. The guy who wants that will be my mate."

Bella's holds her stomach as she shakes and spits out, "You're gonna end up with such a pervert!"

Leah wipes tears from her eyes and responds, "You know, now that I've been in the brains of nine guys, I think it's safe to say that all men are perverts."

"Oh, not my Jake," answers Bella.

Leah gives her a skeptical look and then grins. "You just think that because your kinks match up with his. You're just perverted in the same way he is."

"Am not!"

Leah rolls her eyes and says good naturedly, "Please. I heard your first time, remember? He's a dom and you're a sub and it's a match made in heaven." Bella blushes, which makes Leah snicker at her further. "Yeah. There's a reason I bought you handcuffs for your birthday. It sure wasn't so you can cuff him to your bed, Bella, it was the other way around. He'd rip through those things like they were made of paper." Bella inadvertently gets an image of a naked Jacob secured to her bed, snapping the chains of the cuffs and pouncing on her. She is horribly embarrassed to get aroused by it. Leah sniffs the air and her eyes widen. "Oh my God, Swan. Get your mind out of the gutter!"

Bella protests, "It's your fault! You dragged me into the gutter. I was just sitting here minding my own business when you brought up my legs around Jacob and it just degenerated. I take no responsibility, and I blame you."

Leah nods, "Yeah, okay. This one was all my fault. But it just reinforces my point. You're both pervs. Aren't you glad you picked Jake instead of that cold, dead stalker? I will at least give you this, you are not a necrophiliac. But you are screwing a wolf, so you're into bestiality." Bella slaps her arm, carelessly causing a sting in her own palm. They both laugh until Leah promises, "Okay, okay. I'll stop."

"Yeah. Let's talk about your love life instead of mine," Bella says once they both calm down. "How was your date on Saturday?"

Leah gives a genuine smile. "Fun. It was really fun. It's nice to hang out with a normal guy for once. I've never been in his brain, he's never been in mine. If he gets to see me naked, it's not going to be in the woods before or after a patrol. He hasn't seen me dismember anything. That, I like."

"What was his name, Brad?" Leah nods. "So I hear that you like spending time with someone outside the pack. What about Brad, do you like him?"

Leah shrugs. "Funny, charming, smart, good looking. What's not to like? He called me yesterday, wants to go out again next weekend. I probably will."

"Probably?" Bella asks.

"Depends on whether it interferes with my plans with Steven."

"Wait. The guy from Stats?"

"No, the guy from American History. Jeffrey's the guy from Stats."

"Are you seeing Jeffrey too?"

"We had lunch on Friday, but I don't know that you'd call it a date."

"Did Jeffrey think it was a date?"

Leah eyes Bella. "We're not both chicks, Swan. We didn't sit around professing our undying love like you and Jake do all the time. Who knows? Who cares?"

"Um, maybe Jeffrey?"

Leah sniffs. "If he wants a date, he can ask for one. Maybe I'll say yes, maybe I'll say no."

Bella wonders at this. They have been in college for less than two months, but already Leah has had plans with what seem like different men every weekend. "He can ask, but it sounds like your dance card is pretty full already."

Leah grins and jokes, "Are you calling me a slut, Swan?"

"No!" Bella protests. Although she does wonder if Leah has slept with any of her many dates. Maybe Jacob knows from sharing the pack mind. At the last pack cookout, Leah came by herself, but she debriefed Bella about her date from the night before, a romantic candlelit dinner with Steven. Bella couldn't help but notice Sam eyeing Leah from his spot down the beach, Emily tucked under his arm, on more than one occasion. If it were any normal person, she wouldn't have thought he could hear anything, but she doesn't doubt he heard every word. The little furrow on his brow only reinforced her assumption. Leah, for her part, wasn't actively trying to make Sam jealous. Bella could tell by the open expression on her face as she spoke. "I know you've liked meeting new people. The pack is great, but they've got to just exhaust you sometimes."

Leah sighs. "You have no idea. But my Friday patrols are solo, which is nice, not having to shield my thoughts all the time. It's a little dull, to be honest, but I'll take dull any day over the alternative."

Bella decides to probe a bit. "Have you had any overlap with Sam?"

Leah glances at her briefly before turning back to the road. "No. Which I'd like to thank your boyfriend for, by the way. I don't know if Jake is doing it on purpose, but we don't cross paths often. It's much easier this way."

"I think Sam heard you telling me about Steven the other day. I think he might have been a little jealous."

"Probably," Leah admits freely. Bella is surprised at the ease with which Leah seems to be able to discuss it now. "I try to stay out of his mind as much as I can, but it's unavoidable sometimes."

"What did you learn?" Bella asks gently.

Leah sighs again and pauses. "Nothing that makes any of it any easier. You remember that time over the summer when I stopped Cullen from coming into your room? The night that Jake took down those two leeches while he was coming back from Canada, when he split off from the pack and I followed?"

"Yeah. Everyone thought you got killed since you dropped out of the pack mind."

"Right. The blissful privacy didn't last long since Jake came home and united the packs. Afterward, the next time I was phased in with Sam, he couldn't quite hold back his thoughts. He had been scared out of his wits that I was dead, and I think some old feelings sort of surfaced again."

Bella's eyes widen. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know what to call it. I got a lot of his memories from when he phased initially, and when he first imprinted." Her voice lowers and sounds thick. "At first, his feelings for me were suppressed, but not exactly destroyed. Like a memory. He was overwhelmed by the imprint. And considering what he knew, from what the elders told him, what the legends suggested, he didn't think he had any choice in the matter. And so whatever fight he put up against it, well, let's just say it's not the sort of fight that Jake would put up he imprinted on someone that wasn't you." Leah doesn't sound angry as she speaks. She sounds exhausted. "He thought he'd hurt me less with a clean break. But Bella..." She pauses for several long seconds to find the right words, long enough that Bella thinks she'll stop. Leah's grip on the steering wheel is tight. "It would have been easier on me if I thought he believed that what we had was worth fighting for. And memories are strong. And he really did love me once. With everything he had. The wolf never did, it only loves me like a sister, but the man did. And the wolf didn't take over the man completely."

"And the memory can be reawakened?" Bella asks.

Leah just shrugs again. "Thinking I was dead sort of scared the man, I think, even if the wolf only cared in the way it would care for any pack member. And Sam's never had to see me with other men. I didn't date anybody else until recently, and he never had to face it head on. Jealousy is a strong feeling, you know?"

A knot forms in Bella's gut. She remembers watching Lauren fawn over Jacob at the beach, and despite the fact that he was scrambling to get away from her, Bella seethed anyway. She can't believe what she put Jacob through, running back to Edward time and time again. "What are you going to do?"

"Do?" Leah looks surprised. "What is there to do?"

"Well, now you know, right? He still loves you, doesn't he?"

Leah's mouth is set in a grim line. Finally she answers, "Yeah. He does. He loves Emily too. Doesn't mean anything."

"Of course it does," Bella protests.

Leah huffs. "Okay, but what am I gonna do? Nothing. He's engaged to my cousin, Bella. He hasn't made a move on me, nor will he. Nor should he. I know him well enough. He isn't going to walk away from her."

Bella whispers, "What if he did?"

"You mean, would I take him back?" Bella nods. Leah gulps and slowly shakes her head. "Doesn't matter anyway. His imprint isn't going to break. But even if it did, I can't imagine a single scenario in which I'd take him back, so no. Emily's in love with him. The old fashioned way. The imprint brought them together, sure, but there isn't anything mystical about how she feels about him. I mean, look at Rachel. If imprints went both ways, she'd be shacked up with Paul right now and not in Seattle. No, Emily's just in love with Sam the way I was. I wouldn't put her through what I went through. I'm no homewrecker."

Bella sighs, "I like Emily. I really do. But after seeing Rachel and Paul, I can't quite believe..." Bella doesn't know quite how to put it into words.

"You can't quite believe she went ahead and slept with my ex-fiance?"

"Yeah," Bella breathes. "Rachel really proves that the woman has a choice in the matter."

Leah decides to play devil's advocate. She has thought about this scenario in every possible way already. "After he slashed her face up, I don't think she thought any other man would be interested, and he was acting so desperate. But it is really rough on Paul. I've seen inside that brain, Bella, and it hurts him to be apart from her. It wasn't any easier for Sam. I've seen it in his brain too."

"But Paul seems to be doing okay, all things considered, and most days he doesn't see Rachel at all," Bella protests.

Leah is silent for several seconds. "Emily could've said no, if that's what you're asking. And Sam would have survived, although he didn't think it at the time."

"Do you think you could have stayed together, then? If she had refused him?" Bella is afraid of the answer, but she knows Leah has one at hand.

"I think, in time, the man would have come to the surface again. Even now he still loves me, Bella. It took him a long time to figure out that it's not just brotherly love, though. But the wolf's choice is Emily. Always has been. If she had stood firm, completely rejected him, or said she wanted to be friends like Rachel said to Paul, maybe he would have found his way back to me. But she didn't, not for long, anyway. And he didn't put up even the slightest fight against the imprint, Bella. Not for a single second. So at this point I'm glad we're not together. Because I deserve a man who would fight for me, and it turns out that Sam wasn't that man." Her voice is low and tired, but has lost its bitter edge. Knowing that Sam still loves her doesn't make her feel victorious. At this point it's all just very sad. "But the man still loves me, somewhere in there. The man loves Emily too, of course, after all they've been through together, and this person he is now, she suits him. And the wolf wants her and only her. Plus, it's all wrapped up in the guilt over slashing her up. It's hard to know where the guilt ends and the love begins. So she's going to marry a man that mostly, but not completely, loves her, who never would have picked her if he thought he had any choice in the matter. She was my best friend once. This isn't what I would have wanted for her either, back then. Nobody wins, Bella."

"I'm so glad Jake didn't imprint on me," Bella says as she looks out the window.

Leah nods. "He just loves you. With everything he has. There isn't anything forced or fake or disingenuous about it. He just loves you. I used to hope that I would imprint, too, that the universe could just shine a light on the man I'm supposed to be with and say, 'Here he is, come get him!' But after watching Paul and Rachel, Quil and Claire, and now that I've finally gotten a glimpse inside Sam's brain? No thanks. Not interested."

After a beat, Bella scowls, "I can't believe she had the gall to ask you to be one of her bridesmaids."

Now Leah laughs darkly. "I know, right? She just wants to be forgiven, which I suppose I understand. And although the imprint is pretty blinding, I don't think it's quite so blinding that Sam can somehow stand at the front of that aisle and turn toward her and somehow not see me standing right behind her, the girl he said he'd marry first."

"Are you really okay with doing that?" Bella asks, concerned for her friend.

"They're getting married whether or not I stand up there with them. So I may as well go, keep the peace in the family. But I'm going to take a fuck hot date with me, you can be sure of that," she grins.

Bella smiles softly. "You deserve way better than Sam, Leah. A guy who just loves you and only you. Any of the current crop seem to be candidates?"

Now Leah smiles back. "I'm not exactly looking to get married, Swan."

"Playing the field for a bit?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Leah laughs.

"After the year you had, it's definitely time to have some fun."

"That's my only criteria for now. If I have fun on a date, I'll go on a second one if he wants to."

Bella grins. "They all want to, Leah." She knows they do. Leah's shapely figure, striking features, and exotic beauty easily gain her attention. And outside the Reservation, away from the pack, where no one knows about her father's recent death, her fiance leaving her for her cousin, or her own painful transformation into a protector of her tribe, Leah's personality shines. On campus, she isn't the bitter girl everyone pities. She is the gorgeous young woman with the sexy smile, sparkling eyes, and raunchy humor. She has most of the campus captivated. For every guy brave enough to ask her out, Bella sees three or four looking at her shyly, too nervous to work up the courage to talk to her. "So what's your criteria? You're going out plenty, I know, but I also know you're turning down offers."

"They have to make me laugh. If a guy can make me laugh, I figure he won't be a waste of my time. Even if there turns out to be no chemistry, no spark, if he can make me laugh, we'll probably at least have the potential to be friends. I've had enough crying, Bella."

The mood lightens along with Leah's smile, and she tells Bella about beating Brad at pool but losing at go-karting, and Bella is glad that Leah is enjoying herself so much. Eventually they reach Port Angeles and split up for the rest of the day.

That afternoon, Bella's classes end an hour before Leah's, so she heads to her favorite coffee shop to wait. She sips on a latte and thumbs through a slim volume by Pablo Neruda that she is reading for her poetry class. She falters and smiles.

Brown and Agile Child

Brown and agile child, the sun which forms the fruit  
And ripens the grain and twists the seaweed  
Has made your happy body and your luminous eyes  
And given your mouth the smile of water.

A black and anguished sun is entangled in the twigs  
Of your black mane when you hold out your arms.  
You play in the sun as in a tidal river  
And it leaves two dark pools in your eyes.

Brown and agile child, nothing draws me to you,  
Everything pulls away from me here in the noon.  
You are the delirious youth of bee,  
The drunkenness of the wave, the power of the wheat.

My somber heart seeks you always  
I love your happy body, your rich, soft voice.  
Dusky butterfly, sweet and sure  
Like the wheatfield, the sun, the poppy, and the water.

She doesn't hear Leah's approach, lost in visions of russet skinned, black haired children with her eyes. She finally sees Leah crouched down over the small table at which she sits, peering at her. "Hey, where are you right now, Bella?"

Somehow, an honest answer seems more intimate than all of Leah's discussion about her sex life or old chastisement of Bella's earlier indecision over Edward and Jacob. She turns her book around and Leah scans the page, and a melancholy smile flits briefly across her face. "Feeling maternal, huh?" Leah asks.

"Maybe," Bella admits as she gathers her things. They head to Leah's car parked on the street outside. The rain has cleared temporarily, so Leah rolls down all the windows and they both breathe fresh air. They are silent for a solid twenty minutes before Leah voices a question.

"Sorry to dredge up the past, but did you ever think about that, think about kids, when you were with the leech?"

Bella sighs. "I couldn't even see straight when I was with him. I couldn't see anything beyond him. Nothing else mattered. If people who loved me, like Jake and my parents, didn't even matter to me, how could theoretical children I've never met? He was like... It was like getting high. Or so I imagine. I was addicted, I was consumed, I couldn't think about anything else. I craved it even though it would kill me."

"Literally," Leah quips.

"Literally. But now, now I see all kinds of possibilities. I don't want kids right now, of course, and frankly I never really thought about it much before, even before Edward. But Jake... Jake would be a great dad. And having children with him..." Silence stretches out before them, and Bella knows that Leah is thinking about her own future. Being in college, getting away from the pack, has been so very good for her. But there are nagging worries in the back of her brain. "You're still worried you can't get pregnant, aren't you?"

Leah nods, and several minutes later answers, "Jake will let me stop phasing if I can manage it. But it's hard. I know you think I'll probably start my cycles again when I start aging again, unlock whatever stasis my body is in right now." Bella hears her unspoken words. She wants to stop phasing, but is afraid that if she does so, her fears will be confirmed, and she will know with certainty that she is barren.

But before she can respond with comforting words for her friend, a screech sounds from above. "That sounds familiar," Leah says, her voice laced with concern. They both look to the skies and spot a bald eagle flying along the path of the road just feet in front of them.

"It's awfully low," Bella states. "Why would an eagle follow along a road? Is there some roadkill up ahead or something?"

"I don't think that's just any bird, Bella," Leah responds. But just as soon as she speaks, the eagle veers away to the forest to the north.

Bella laughs uncomfortably. "I think maybe we're imagining things. Anthropomorphizing random birds of prey."

Leah presses on the gas pedal and shakes her head. "I don't know. Something doesn't feel right. I feel like I've heard the sound of its call before."

"Can you tell the difference?" Bella asks.

"Not usually. But I think I might have seen it in the pack mind before. It reminds me of Jacob's eagle."

"Jacob's eagle?"

Leah's face is grim as she speeds toward home. "It helped him call all those animals to distract Edward when he had you held in that house. It was there when we tore apart Bree. It led us home afterward. It was fast, Bella. Much faster than a normal bird. It's on our side, Bella, but the fact that it's here at all..."

Bella's heart speeds in her chest. "Are we in danger, Leah?"

"I don't know, Bella. Something doesn't feel right. I'd like to phase and call the pack to us, but I don't want to leave you here in the car." She reaches for her phone and hands it to Bella. "Here. This isn't the nineteenth century. Give Jake a call and have him phase and start toward us. Or whichever of the pack you can get on the phone."

With shaking hands, Bella agrees. But before she can press a single button, a bright flash of white appears between the trees at the side of the dense forest just to their right. It lands in the otherwise deserted road in front of them. Leah slams on the brake hard, whipping the steering wheel to the right so that the car skids to a halt. The phone slips through Bella's hands and beneath the seat. Through Leah's open window Bella sees pale, glittering skin, bright red eyes, and a feral smile. Leah growls, "Just drive." And then she is out the door, slamming it behind her, ripping her clothes to shreds as she explodes into her wolf.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my beta, Babs 81410, at JBNP.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Many thanks to my Beta, Babs81410, at JBNP.

X-x-x-x-X  
October  
X-x-x-x-X

Bella unbuckles her seatbelt and awkwardly clambers over the gearshift and into the driver's seat, idly noting an expression of awe on the face of the vampire planted in the middle of the road. Before Bella even reaches the gas pedal, Leah slams into the small female vampire, knocking her off the pavement and into a tree. Frantically, Bella mashes on the gas and pulls away with squealing tires. Through the open window she hears a loud thud. In the rearview mirror she sees a blur of light gray fur and sparkling skin tumble back across the road. She pulls her foot off the petal and frantically searches the mirrors for any sign of Leah, finding none. They aren't in patrol territory. Other wolves will be on their way, but even at top speed it probably will take several minutes for them to arrive.

For a split second, she curses her indecision. Then her absurd instinct to run toward danger combines with her genuine concern for her friend. She rapidly executes a U turn and races back toward Leah. She rounds a slight bend and immediately sees Leah and the vampire locked in a struggle on the right shoulder of the road. Leah has her teeth sunk deep into the vampire's right shoulder and upper arm. For a moment, Bella thinks Leah will rip off the entire limb, and Bella is confused when instead, the combatants simply remain immobilized in each other's deadly embrace. But as she approaches in the sedan, she realizes why. The vampire has its left arm wrapped awkwardly wrapped around Leah's neck. Leah's eyes are wide with fury and terror. Bella realizes Leah is being strangled. Her teeth and left paw holds the vampire's right hand just inches from her throat. But the second she allows both arms to get around her neck will be the second she dies. The vampire has Leah trapped, and Leah has the vampire trapped.

As Bella watches, the eagle dives straight down from above. It aims its sharp beak right at the vampire's face. The vampire shrieks a sound like nails on a chalkboard and bats away the bird with its partly pinned right arm, sending the bird of prey tumbling back through the air to strike against a tree. It recovers almost immediately, whirling back around and aiming its sharp claws for the leech's eyes. It manages to tear the left eye right out of the vampire's socket before spinning up and away, but the monster does not break its hold on Leah.

Bella does the only thing she can think of. She narrows her eyes in a sudden rush of fury and fastens her seatbelt. Leah will not last until the rest of the pack arrives. Bella floors the gas pedal and aims straight for the leech. It won't kill the vampire, certainly. But it is the only thing Bella can think to do, and perhaps it will be enough. She meets Leah's eyes, and seconds later slams the front of the car into the near dead thing planted on the shoulder. At that same moment Leah releases her jaws and drops back, safely out of the way of the vehicle. Bella feels searing pain across her chest and hips at the same moment a horrible crunch and screech of metal rip through the air. Bella sees white as the the airbags explode toward her, smacking her in the face and side of the head, and then her neck springs back and the back of her skull slams back against the headrest. Simultaneously, she hears another sickening impact above her. Immediately, everything hurts. But she can feel the car still moving forward despite her right foot mashing hard on the brake pedal. When the airbags deflate seconds later she sees the forest rushing toward her and she instinctively throws her arms in front of her face. A second impact immediately follows, causing the seatbelt to dig painfully back into her skin. But then, silence.

Bella lowers her arms and opens her eyes, unconsciously closed during impact. She sees that the sedan is wedged between two trees, the hood accordioned inward. The windshield is a collapsed cobweb of cracks. She looks for the rearview or side mirrors but finds none of them. She yanks desperately at her seatbelt and mashes the button release in futility, unable to free herself. Finally she just cranes her neck backward to see into the road behind her. She nearly cries in relief when she sees the small wolf efficiently dismembering the vampire, but then struggles to free herself from the totaled car again. There is no telling how many other vampires might have been traveling with the dead one, which would make Bella trapped in the remains of Leah's car a nice box lunch for a hungry companion vampire. The eagle is nowhere to be found.

She fails to extricate herself and soon looks back for Leah, but realizes she is alone. Her heart speeds in alarm until she hears two car doors slamming behind her and sees a plume of smoke rise from further inside the forest. A middle aged couple run toward her from the road. As the husband yells into his cell phone, the wife talks to Bella, kindly trying to keep her calm until help arrives. Bella can't think of a good cover story to explain the details of her accident, so she feigns disorientation. A few minutes later, she sees Leah's wolf nod to her from deeper within the woods. She nods back, and the wolf disappears from sight.

Ten minutes later, a shirtless Jacob materializes from out of nowhere with panic in his eyes at the same time the state police arrive. He leans in the broken back window to touch any accessible patches of her skin. Their matching frantic heartbeats immediately calm at the contact. He murmurs words of concern and comfort and suggests she claim to have hit a deer which survived and ran off. He is sorely tempted to loosen the car from its trap and rip off the doors with his bare hands, but they are surrounded by spectators.

Charlie himself arrives on the scene several minutes later with the road crew and pulls Jacob back. His tugs on Jacob's arms are wholly ineffectual, but eventually his repeated insistence that the road crew need him to move so they can free Bella convinces him to step away. Their hearts speed in simultaneous protest at the lack of contact.

Eventually Leah's totaled car is dismantled and Bella extricated. Despite her protests, she is placed in a collar and strapped to a backboard and loaded into an ambulance. Jacob clambers in after her without being asked and will not let go of her hand, and they both audibly sigh in relief at the contact. Charlie follows behind them in his cruiser.

Four hours, a handful of drugs, and an X-ray later, Bella walks out of the front doors of the hospital and steps into the back of the cruiser. Jacob still won't let go of her hand, having leaned back just far enough to allow the bemused ER doctor to examine her. He only agreed to leave her side for a few seconds when it became clear that the radiology tech absolutely would not take her films until Jacob stepped behind the lead screen. He tucks her under his arm and she falls asleep almost instantly.

In the privacy of the car, Charlie asks quietly, "Was that really a deer?"

Jacob answers somberly, "Nope. It's what you thought it was. We didn't recognize it from anywhere, and there wasn't exactly a chance to stop to interrogate it. Probably a nomad, but who knows. The pack is scouring the area to see if there are any adjacent trails."

Charlie sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "Maybe I should hire you to follow her everywhere like a bodyguard. That sound like a job you're willing to take? Pay sucks and there's no dental, though."

Jacob chuckles despite himself. "I'd love to. But today you should thank Leah. She ripped that sucker to bits. And Bella herself. Crazy girl was getting away in the car when she turned back for Leah. Aimed right for the leech. She really helped out Leah, but it scares the crap out of me that her instinct was to head back to danger instead of away from it." He simultaneously wants to kiss Bella in thanks for helping Leah, and also wants to shake some sense into her. The only smart thing to do would have been to drive away.

Charlie sighs heavily. "Don't know where she gets that from."

Jacob smiles. "Hate to break it to you Charlie, but you walk straight into dangerous situations for a living. I think she gets it from you."

Charlie grins. "Must be genetic, then. Try not to have any daughters, Jake. Screw vampires and werewolves. Daughters are the most frightening creatures on the planet."

An hour later, Jacob tucks Bella into bed. Charlie doesn't even try to get him to go home. He just says, "Call your father before you go to sleep. And the bedroom door stays open."

Jacob steps into the woods to phase for a quick update.

_How is she?_ asks Sam.

_Bruised and achy, but she'll be fine otherwise._

Quil chimes in enthusiastically. _Your girl's a badass, man! I'm gonna call her Buffy from now on._

_She saved my ass back there,_ Leah states in a matter of fact tone.

_And you saved hers,_ Jacob answers.

Sam responds, _Yeah, Leah. If you hadn't been in the car with her, that thing would have eaten her for lunch. _Behind Sam's somber voice, Jacob gets flashes of the older man's mind. Sam had been phased in alone patrolling the eastern border of the reservation, when Leah appeared in his mind, glorious in her fury. He watched with terror and admiration as he watched her knock the vampire aside, and he immediately let out a desperate howl to his brothers and started sprinting for her. But time had stopped in the moment that the leech managed to get its arm around Leah's neck. _No no no no no... _His gut churns that Leah was in danger, again, without any of the pack (or, most specifically, Sam himself) to back her up. Jacob senses that there is more there, much more, confused and jumbled and aching at Sam's core, but the former Alpha walls it up and away instantaneously.

_Bella attracts vampires to her like flies to honey. Why do you think it was after her? _Quil asks.

_I should have asked it, _Leah replies.

_Don't worry about it,_ Jacob answers. _We all saw. You didn't get a chance, not fighting it by yourself without any backup. Better to end it as quickly as possible. Anything else would have been too risky._

_I had backup. Your pet eagle and your girlfriend behind the wheel of my car,_ Leah replies, the smile audible in her voice.

_Maybe Charlie can get her a grenade launcher to carry with her to class_, Quil suggests. _Or a flamethrower. _

Leah quips, _She'd just blow off her own foot or set her hair on fire._

_Good thing she's basically got a bunch of werewolf bodyguards, then, _Sam answers. Whatever reaction he is having to Leah's brush with danger today, this time he has it locked up tightly. He continues, _Jake, we've combed this area thoroughly. There aren't any other trails, but maybe we should ask around._

_The Cullens? _

_Yeah. No reason not to find out if he knows anything. _

_Good idea. _Jacob phases out to call Carlisle. He isn't certain where the coven is right now, but it isn't as if he's going to wake anyone up.

Carlisle answers on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, Dr. Cullen. It's Jacob."

"Of course, Jacob. Good evening. It's late in Washington, I take it this isn't a social call?"

Jacob runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "Nope, 'fraid not. Bella and Leah were attacked today on the road home from Port Angeles. A lone female vamp, sort of short, shoulder length black hair, young looking. We didn't get a chance to interrogate it before killing it. Ring any bells for you?"

"Oh my, are they alright?"

"Yeah, bruised a bit, but they'll both live. And Bella totalled Leah's car driving into the lee... vampire in order to knock it off Leah," Jacob answers, pride audible in his voice.

Carlisle laughs. "Running in the wrong direction again, was she? Brave girl."

Now Jacob smiles. "Too brave for her own good, if you ask me, but she really helped out Leah. They weren't anywhere near the Rez yet, so none of the pack was nearby."

"Well, I can't be for certain, but we have just had a bit of disturbing news from Volterra. I'm not sure if this is related." Jacob's heart sinks as Carlisle speaks. "Apparently, Chelsea, Felix, and Jane never made it back to Italy."

"Shit, what happened?"

"No one seems to know. Or at least my friends don't. They were apparently not going straight back; there were apparently other matters in North America for them to contend with. But they should have been back by now, and no one seems to know where they are."

"So the vamp we killed today, it might have been a scout?"

Carlisle pauses. "I will see what I can find out. Are you certain it was alone?"

"It was alone when it died. The pack has combed the surrounding area and hasn't found any other trails."

"Well, that is reassuring. I can't be certain, obviously, but Volturi guard do not normally travel by themselves. However, they do sometimes hunt alone. Not everyone wants to share their meals. So it might have been separate from its companions while it fed."

"So there could be more, then."

"I would be prepared, yes. I'll see what I can find out, Jacob, and I will be in touch."

"Thanks, Dr. Cullen." Jacob hangs up the phone and returns outside to tell his pack to be on high alert. They all hope it was really a nomad, but they have no way of knowing, and the news about the missing Volturi guard ratchets their anxiety up a notch. Jacob had hoped to decrease the patrol schedule further but realizes it isn't possible yet. He makes a quick call from Charlie's kitchen phone to reassure his father that both he and Bella are safe, takes a quick shower, wraps himself around his love, and falls instantly into an exhausted sleep.

When he wakes, it is still dark outside. He blearily focuses on the clock. 3:12 AM. What woke him up? His arms are still full of his warm, soft Bella. His brave, foolhardy Bella. His breakable Bella. She lets out a little sigh, and he notices that his muscles are all sore. Why is that? He ran fast to get to her, yes, and he held his body in some awkward positions to stay in contact with her for the duration of the afternoon and evening, but why does he ache like this?

And then he remembers. At the precise moment that Bella hit the vampire with Leah's sedan, knocking it aside and distracting it just long enough for Leah to take advantage and rip it to pieces, he felt searing pain diagonally across his chest and hips, followed almost immediately by a sensation like a slap in the face, then a straining pull in his neck and shoulders. He phased immediately and started racing toward her without even knowing why.

Bella groans and rolls over in his arms.

"Sore, honey?" he whispers.

"Ugh. Yes," she mutters.

He kisses her forehead and slips out from underneath her, causing a her to protest in a wordless whine. "I'm just going to get your pills." He takes them off her dresser and carefully doles them out into his hand, offering them to her with a bottle of water. He can see she is about to try to drink them down without rising, and he gently tugs her into a sitting position before she can spill water all over herself. When she is done, he crawls back into bed with her.

"I feel like I got hit by a car," she mutters.

He hums a soft sound of sympathy and replies, "You mean because you were?"

"But nothing was broken or anything. Why am I sore all over?"

Jacob concentrates on the sensations in his own body. "Let me guess, your neck and back are the worst, and you hurt across your hips and chest?"

She looks up at him quizzically. "Yeah, how'd you know? I mean, I kind of hurt everywhere, but that's the worst."

He gently lifts up her shirt and points out the bruises from her seatbelt. "Well, this wasn't too hard to guess. But..."

"But what?"

"Uh, but I can sort of feel it too. Right here, and here." He gestures in a line across his own chest and hips, and then points to his own back and neck.

"Really?" Bella is momentarily distracted from her discomfort.

"Yeah. I actually felt it in my own body the moment you hit the vampire. I could feel it exactly where you got hurt. Still can."

She pushes him back and rests her head against his chest, sliding her hand in between them to feel the pulse in her own neck. "And this is still the same. Think that's related?"

"Yeah, I do," he murmurs.

She lifts her head up and grins unexpectedly. "That kind of sucks for you. I hurt myself all the time."

He laughs in relief, the tension rushing out of his chest. "It's probably worth it. I think it's the same reason that when you feel really, really good, I can feel it too. Like I said before, making love to you got really intense, even more so than before. It's probably the downside to the same phenomenon."

Her grin turns into a sultry smile. "Mmm." She slips her hand downward to stroke him, and he lets out a groan. "So if I do this, I should feel it too?" She tilts her head down to look and immediately winces due to a stretching pain in her neck. "Maybe we should experiment with that later."

He laughs and rolls her back onto her side, facing away from him. "Promise?" he asks.

"Promise." He smiles and massages her neck and shoulders gently until she falls asleep again.

X-x-x-x-X

Bella's injuries, superficial though they are, take two weeks to stop aching. They are two long weeks for both Jacob and Bella, not only due to her discomfort and the echoes he feels in his own body, but because he refuses to let himself lose control with her when they are alone for fear of hurting her, although every night he isn't on patrol he slips into bed with her to hold her as they sleep. Three nights after the accident, he crawls into her bedroom window and slides her panties off as she sleeps heavily, waking her with his tongue and lips between her thighs. She squirms and bucks against him, holding a pillow over her face to absorb her cries as he pleases her. He brings her to a shaking, blissful conclusion. But when he uncovers her pale skin to reveal the extent of the blue bruises across her flesh, he refuses to fully make love to her. Much to her disappointment, he stubbornly will not even let her return the favor. She gets annoyed that he is treating her as a fragile object, flashes of Edward Cullen fresh in her mind. But when she rolls over to argue with him, she winces, and he absolutely will not change his mind. She does allow him to sleep in her bed for the duration of her recovery, and his arms around her feel perfect but for the fact that he will not to do anything else with her.

The day after the incident, she misses classes in favor of sleeping in. She wakes at noon to find an empty house, a note from Charlie telling her to call if she needs anything, and a crock pot of delicious chicken soup simmering on the kitchen counter courtesy of Sue Clearwater. The instant she tries to get out of bed she has to reach for her ibuprofen. Somehow, she feels worse now than in the instant she crashed. Jacob had woken her to administer a dose when he left to go to school for the day and it has already worn off. She takes a pill and then climbs uncomfortably into the shower. She lets the warm water run over her, soothing her tight muscles, until the water turns cold. As soon as she steps out of the warm bathroom, the muscles of her back and neck tighten painfully, so she grabs a muscle relaxer from the emergency room. She limps down the stairs and comforts herself with a large helping of Sue's soup.

She babies herself for the day, lowering herself to the couch with a volume by Sylvia Plath for her poetry class and a mug of her spicy chocolate. By two o'clock, she feels like she can barely move. She winces as she uncurls herself from the couch. She wants to put her shoes on just to go check the mail and finds that she can't bend over to reach her feet. She slowly makes her way to her bedroom and holds a prescription bottle in each hand, debating between one and the other. Finally, she mentally shrugs and takes two of each.

Two hours later Leah knocks on her front door. Leah had borrowed Bella's truck to get to school since hers was totaled. Leah wanted to return it and to bring back coursework from Bella's missed classes. Bella springs up to answer, tripping over the coffee table as she goes. Leah barely hears the thump over the blaring sound of the television and opens the unlocked front door to find a giggling pile of Bella wedged between the coffee table and couch.

"I brought you your truck and your work back. Hey, are you okay?" Leah asks, hanging the truck's keys on their hook by the door.

Bella's eyes grow wide in response, but she doesn't even try to get up. "I'm so confused, Lee Lee."

Leah frowns. "Don't call me that. Or I'll call you Buffy like Quil wants to do. What are you confused about?"

Bella points to the television. "Are those girls really boys, or are those boys really girls?"

Leah finally registers the screen. Jerry Springer is solemnly watching a very unattractive woman reveal to a very surprised man that she is, in fact, a transvestite. She smirks and points. "The fat one is 100% boy, and the tall one with the wig is about 60% boy and 40% girl, I'd say."

"Ohhhh, that's a wig," Bella sighs, as if this clears anything up. "If that one is 100% boy, then I'd say Jake is, like 200%. But there's at least, like 5% girl in there." She alters her voice to a stage whisper, incorrectly thinking she is being quiet. "He's a giant sap, did you know that? He wants to get married and have lots of babies, and that's a girl thing. So maybe he's... maybe he's..." she pauses in concentration, "195% boy and 5% girl." Leah tries to hold in her laughter as Bella becomes visibly confused. "Lee Lee, when'd you get so tall? Are you part boy too? Did that make you big?"

Leah has to laugh as she shoves aside the coffee table and reaches out to take Bella's hand.

"That's because I'm standing up and you're sitting on the floor." She shakes her head ruefully. "I can't believe you saved my life." Leah tugs Bella up. "Better?"

Bella still tilts her neck back. "But you're still taller than me."

"True," Leah answers. "When you're feeling better we can get you platform shoes and you can match my height." She examines her wobbly friend. "On second thought, scratch that. If you need to match, I'll just squat down or something. Much safer. What did you take today, Swan?"

Bella looks at her solemnly. "What the doctor told me to. I didn't like the doctor last night as much as I like Carlisle. He looked three times as old and only a quarter as pretty."

Leah decides to concede this point. After all, if Bella ever reveals the content of their conversation, Leah will just claim that Bella was high. Which she is. "Dr. Cullen is very pretty, Bella. But I think you should show me what you took." Bella agrees and starts stumbling toward the stairs, but Leah stops her. "How 'bout I just bring the medicine down and you can show me?" She leads Bella back to the couch. Bella sinks down gratefully with a great yawn.

It only takes Leah a few seconds to search the bedroom and find the pill bottles. But by the time she returns, Bella is snoring lightly, tipped back against the cushions with her mouth agape. Leah shakes her, not very gently, until she wakes with a surprised snort. "Bella, how many did you take?"

"Lee Lee! You came to see me!" Bella slurs.

Leah rolls her eyes. She is rapidly moving from amused to annoyed. "Bella, quit it with the 'Lee Lee' shit and show me what you took." She shoves the bottles in Bella's face, very closely, so that Bella's eyes cross a little staring at the bottles.

Bella grabs the ibuprofen first and struggles with the cap until Leah takes it back and opens it for her. Bella peers inside and says, "Ooh, the pretty pink ones. One of these."

"Okay, that's fine," Leah answers. "When?"

"When I woke up," Bella says definitively.

Leah hands her the vicodin next, opening the cap so Bella can look inside. "How 'bout these, did you take any of these?"

"Oh," Bella answers. "The boring white ones. Two of them. They tasted funny."

Leah reads the bottle. "Maybe you should have started with one instead of two, but it says that's okay." Finally she opens the flexeril and hands the bottle to Bella. "How about these?"

Bella's face lights up. "The orange ones! They're such a nice color. And a nice shape. Wait, what's the shape?"

Leah rolls her eyes. "A pentagon. How many orange pentagon pills did you take?"

Bella spills the entire content of the bottle into her hand (and onto the floor). She drops pills one by one without paying attention to where they land, as Leah tries to stop her and picks up the scattered pills. When she is done she holds her hand out to Leah. "This many."

Leah looks between the label and Bella's hand. "Bella. It says up to three per day. Not three at a time! No wonder you're so high. Let me call my mom."

"She makes the best soup, Lee Lee!" Bella yells enthusiastically. "Tell her thank you for me!" Bella tips over somewhat involuntarily and snuggles into the soft cushions.

Leah pulls out her phone and dials. "Hey, sweetheart!" answers Sue.

"Hey, Mom. I need some advice."

"Okay, I've got a minute. But not long. I'm on break for just a little longer."

"I'm over at the Swans'. I think Bella took too many meds."

"Oh, dear. Give me the details."

"She took one tablet of ibuprofen, two vicodin, and three flexeril."

Sue asks, "How many milligrams are the tablets?"

"Uh, 600 of the ibuprofen, the vicodin says 5... and 500?"

"Right, and the flexeril?"

"They're 10 milligrams each."

"Oof. Over how much time?"

Leah looks over at Bella, who has fallen asleep again.

"All at once, I think."

"How does she look?" asks Sue, professional concern lacing her voice.

"Asleep. And drooling," Leah snorts.

"Can you wake her up?" prompts Sue.

"She was awake just a second ago. Let me try again. Bella... Bella..." She gets no response. "Hey, Swan." Leah shakes her by the arm, and Bella snorts herself awake again.

Bella looks blearily into Leah's eyes. "Lee Lee! You came to see me!" she says happily.

Leah puts the phone back to her ear. "You hear that?"

Sue is laughing. "Is she high?"

"As a kite, Mom."

Sue chuckles. "I'll say. Take her pulse, will you? And her temperature if you can."

Leah turns back to Bella. "Do you have a thermometer, Swan?"

Bella smiles blissfully at her. "Sure I do!"

"Where is it?"

Bella immediately narrows her eyes in suspicion. "Where you'll never find it," she hisses.

Leah is genuinely startled. "I just want to take your temperature, Bella. You took too much medication and I have to make sure you're safe."

Bella scoots to the farthest corner of the couch. "You can't! I won't let you!"

"How come?"

Bella reaches under herself. "No one comes near my bum! Not even Jacob! And definitely not you! You don't have a giant thingy like he does, but you're still not coming near my bum!" Leah realizes Bella is grabbing her own buttocks and has to laugh.

"Mom, are you hearing this?" Sue laughs an affirmation. Leah continues, "Bella, you couldn't get me to take a rectal temperature on you if your life depended on it. Don't you have a normal thermometer? Like, one that goes in your mouth?"

"Oh," Bella immediately brightens. "I'm sure we do!"

"Great. Where is it?"

"In the first aid kit!" Bella answers brightly.

"Which is..." Leah prompts.

"The box that has the first aid stuff in it!" Bella answers firmly.

Sue interrupts through the phone, "Just look under the bathroom sinks. If you don't find it, don't keep looking."

Leah puts the phone down, deciding to try to take Bella's pulse first. But Bella is squirmy, just like the intoxicated toddler she has regressed into. Bella seems to think she is going to get tickled. She busts out laughing at every touch from Leah's hand, even just the one on her wrist. Leah finally has to pin her down to get her pulse. She leaves Bella to her giggling and goes up the stairs. "Pulse is around ninety, I think. But she wouldn't stop struggling."

"That's not bad," Sue answers. "Let me grab a doctor while you look for a thermometer."

Leah searches for a good ten minutes, coming up with nothing. Sue just tells her to watch Bella, warning her that the inebriated girl will just need to sleep it off. When she returns to the living room, Bella is planted face down in the cushions that muffle her snores. Leah rolls her over so she can breathe unencumbered and ladles out a bowl of her mother's chicken soup for herself. She switches off Jerry Springer, takes out her statistics homework, and plants herself at the coffee table to work.

Jacob and Charlie arrive at the same time in the early evening. Somehow, Leah has resisted the urge to draw a mustache and beard on Bella's face with permanent marker. As she hears the cars pull into the driveway, she gathers her things together and exits through the front door. She tosses the prescription bottles to Jacob, who catches them deftly in midair. "Night, guys. Enjoy Sleeping Beauty. If she ever wakes up, her assignments are in the bag. No more drugs for her." Under her breath, low enough that Charlie can't hear, she mutters to Jacob, "Lay off the anal sex. I don't think she really likes it." Leah jogs off down the road as Jacob sputters an incomprehensible protest.

X-x-x-x-X


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: As always, thanks to my beta, Babs81410, at JBNP.

X-x-x-x-X  
November  
X-x-x-x-X

After hearing of her supposed accident, Mrs. Newton refuses to let Bella return to work for the next week. She finds herself with more free time than she has had since beginning college, so she decides to spend it in her favorite place, La Push.

On Friday afternoon, she finds herself in Jacob's garage. She has a bit of a flashback to the previous year. It brings back mixed feelings. At that time, Jacob was the only bright spot in her life, her light in a dark world, the only source of joy in an otherwise miserable existence. He, of course, is a purely happy memory for her. And sitting here on his broken down loveseat, the very spot they took each other's virginity, sipping on warm soda, brings back good memories. Jacob's long legs stick out from under an old Chevy Impala rather than his Rabbit. A neighbor hired him to replace the drum brake shoes on the car, three words that Bella understands, but which mean nothing to her when strung together. Happily, under Jacob's tutelage she now knows the difference between a socket wrench and an allen wrench and can actually pass him the tools he needs. He keeps up a slightly muffled running commentary from his position under the chassis, filling the air with the sound of his voice. She isn't even sure what he is talking about, but the rumbling sound soothes her. She worries briefly each time the car jiggles or shakes, as it appears precariously balanced on the cinder blocks they placed underneath it for elevation, paranoid that it will collapse on his head at any minute. He laughs at her anxiety and wonders out loud if his rapid healing could repair a "squished brain". She doesn't particularly enjoy the black humor, nor had she appreciated Jacob's shaking laughter as he held the rear bumper of the car aloft with his bare hands as he watched her struggle to drag cinder blocks under each wheel. He had offered to spare her the trouble of moving the large bricks, claiming he could simply shove the blocks into place with his feet while he held the car up single handedly. Her pride had not allowed her to take him up on the offer. On the other hand, she had appreciated the sight of his contracted biceps and rectus abdominis muscles. Jacob noticed, of course, which only made him laugh harder, simultaneously annoying her further.

But reflecting back on their earlier experiences in his garage, she cannot help but chide herself for allowing herself to fall into such a black depression, particularly now that she knows that her relationship with Edward Cullen was built atop a foundation of deceit. It reminds her of just how awful she was to Jacob, both by knowingly using him for his kindness and sunny nature with no intention of returning his feelings, and later for blatantly tossing them back in his face. She actually lets out an audible sigh as she starts to wallow in self loathing and irritability.

He notices, of course, because he notices everything about her whether or not she wants him to. He had only been amused at her annoyance earlier. He had been tempted to tease her about her skinny human arms as she struggled to scoot the cinder blocks into place, but he knew enough to keep his mouth shut. He slides out from beneath the Impala and tilts his head at her, looking for all the world like a concerned puppy. "What's wrong, honey?"

She twists the hem of her shirt and doesn't look him in the eye. "Nothing," she sighs again.

He drops the subject and slides back under the chassis, returning to his mysterious work, telling her about the car's owner and how most people don't take such good care of their cars. She listens to the sound of his voice but tunes out his actual words. She leans back and stares at the ceiling.

"Bells, can you pass me the WD-40? Bells?" He waits for a few more seconds. "Bella?"

She snaps out of her musings. "Oh, um. Yeah." She hands him the can, and he looks at her curiously as their hands meet.

She frowns in response. "Don't look at me like that," she snaps.

His eyes widen in surprise. "Like what?"

She huffs. "Like nothing."

"Doesn't sound like nothing," he says gently. He just looks at her with warm eyes until she can't stand it anymore.

"I'm cranky." The words tumble involuntary from her mouth.

He can't help but cough out a startled laugh as she frowns more. After he calms down, he asks, "Okay, why are you cranky?"

The little twinkle of amusement in his eye both fascinates and irritates her. "I don't know," she whines.

"Are you uncomfortable? Do you want some motrin?" He knows she is. He can feel a reflected ache in his own body.

She shakes her head. "Yes, but I'm not due for another couple hours."

"How about the vicodin the ER gave you?" he offers.

"It makes me fuzzy."

He chuckles again. There's an understatement if he ever heard one. "It makes you high. But maybe if you don't take a whole day's worth of pills all at once it'll be safer."

Bella pouts. "No, no more muscle relaxers or pain pills for me. I slept for sixteen solid hours after taking them, Jake."

"They made you chatty too, I think. Why did Leah tell me not to, um, take the back door?" Jacob can't look her in the eye as he asks, so uses the convenient excuse of his work to slide back under the car.

"Huh?" Bella asks, perplexed. "What are you talking about? You come in the back door all the time."

Jacob blushes furiously at Bella's unintended double entendre, and he can't resist the temptation to tease Bella about her loose tongue when she was high. Plus he really wants to know what they talked about, and Leah refuses to tell him. "When I came to your place on Tuesday, you were already passed out, remember?"

"Yeah, sure." She pauses, then frowns. "Well no, I don't remember. But I guess that's the point."

Jacob laughs. "Right. Well, on her way out Leah told me to, uh, stop doing certain things to you. Said you didn't like to, uh, have me, uh, block the emergency exit, so to speak. But I've never done that, so... yeah."

Bella frowns. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Jake. Spit it out!" She raises her soda can to her lips.

After a long pause, Jacob finally blurts out, "Anal, Bells." Bella chokes on her drink, spitting it onto her own legs. "She told me, and I quote, 'Lay off the anal sex. I don't think she likes it.' And then she ran away. What was she talking about? What did you guys talk about?"

Bella's cheeks are bright red, and her eyes wide. Eventually she closes her gaping mouth and blinks. She sets aside her mortification to try to dig through her bleary memories of Tuesday afternoon. She remembers sleeping in, taking a hot shower, eating Sue's soup, and curling up on the couch. She also remembers making the foolish decision to take pain medication, as well as the exact manner in which she misread her medication instructions. Then things get fuzzy.

Meanwhile, Jacob fills the silence with the most awkward nervous chatter she has ever heard. "I mean, she told me not to. So I figured you don't want me to. But then I couldn't figure out why she brought it up at all. 'Cause since I've never done that to you, why would it even come up? Do you actually want that? It's not really my thing, you know, but, uh, I don't want to, uh, leave you hanging. If you want that, I mean. So, yeah. What were you guys talking about?"

Bella finally finds her voice. "I was totally high, Jake. But I'm still pretty sure we didn't really talk about that." She pauses. "But I remember... Oh, I know. I was afraid she was going to take a rectal temperature and I kind of freaked out. That's all I can think of."

Jacob sighs in relief. "Oh, good. 'Cause I was afraid I wasn't, you know, satisfying you." Bella just scoffs, but says nothing further. The silence grows deafening. Jacob stops his movement. "Wait, am I not satisfying you, Bella?" Bella frowns and looks intently at her shoes, fingering the charm on the leather bracelet he made for her. She doesn't know how to tell Jacob, so she just says nothing. He scoots out from underneath the Impala and looks her right in the eye. "Honey, you can tell me anything," his voice softens, but she can hear the insecurity underneath.

She tries to look at him but can't maintain the gaze. So she buries her face in her hands and mutters as quietly as she can, "It's been six days, Jake. Don't you want me?" Any normal human would never have heard her, but Jacob heard every word.

He smiles at her. "Honey, always. You make me crazy. My mind and my body. Of course I want you. But you were hurt really badly and you're covered in bruises. You can barely turn your head to the side, and the only way to stop that gets you completely high."

She somehow manages to lower her volume even further and squeezes her eyes shut behind her fingers. "But I'm really horny, Jake."

He can't hold back a soft laugh. "Is that why you're so frustrated?" He leans up and pries her hands from her face.

"Yes," she admits sheepishly, but won't open her eyes.

He rubs circles into her palms with his thumbs. "Last night didn't help with that?" he asks, referencing the orgasm he gave her with his tongue.

Bella takes a deep breath. "Yes." She clears her throat. "No." She finally opens her eyes reluctantly to look into his smiling brown ones. "I wanted so much more, Jake. It was such a tease."

He draws her into a gentle embrace as he chuckles into her hair. "I promise, honey. I'll more than make it up to you when you're all better, okay? And until then, how 'bout a repeat performance of last night, but more of them, if you want?"

She is too embarrassed to say anything else, so she just nods into his neck, where her face is buried.

X-x-x-x-X

The next day, Bella joins a pack meeting over the weekend and is surprised to see Old Quil in attendance. He gives her a nod of recognition.

Jacob opens the meeting by asking the last wolves on patrol, Embry and Brady, for updates. Young Quil had followed the dead vampire's trail all the way back to Seattle, but the smells of the city and a driving rain washed its scent away before he could learn anything more.

"Still a lot of nothing," Embry confirms.

"Can't be upset about that," Jacob answers.

"But are we looking hard enough?" Leah asks.

"What do you mean?" Sam frowns.

"The vamp that Bella and I killed was pretty far east." Bella is surprised to hear of her own role discussed in this manner. Did she help kill the vampire? Leah continues, "Way outside our normal patrol zone. If another vamp comes looking for it, we could be patrolling in the wrong area. I know Quil didn't find anything, but does that mean we stop looking?"

Sam frowns. "We aren't responsible for the entire state of Washington, Leah."

"But Dr. Fang said it might have been a Volturi scout looking for the ones that disappeared. I think we want to know if more of those Italian leeches are going to make trouble for us," Leah finishes.

"Leah's right. But I don't want anyone so far out all by themselves, and unless we start dropping out of school, we can't maintain full patrols of the whole Olympic peninsula. Let's start by doing our own scouting for trails twice a week. Two wolves at a time will go all the way to Puget sound. Depending on what we find, we may need to increase it. I'll redo the patrol schedule. But there's a better alternative to those patrols. You can cover a lot more ground by spirit walking than by running. And it would only take one person at a time to do that. So let's see what you guys can do."

Old Quil steps forward. "A thorough examination of the few documented journals and histories available are unrevealing as to any sort of technique about how to spirit walk. After all, our people have passed down our knowledge in our stories, in the tales told around the bonfire and in our homes to our children. Only in relatively recent years has any systematic attempt been made to write it all down, and before Jacob went spirit walking, no one had done it in hundreds of years." His eyes twinkle. "But my way worked before, so let's try that."

It is an entirely fabricated ritual of his own imagining. They are in the same clearing where Jacob took his first spirit walk. He asks Leah to light a fire, and to Jacob's chagrin she has a much easier time of doing the task by hand than he did. Once it's blazing, he serves each pack member a lukewarm drink from a large thermos, the contents of which he refuses to disclose, laughing to himself as they make faces at the bitter taste. They each lie flat on the ground and focus on the sky above as he throws herbs onto the fire. He begins a singing chant. Then he moves between them painting intricate designs on their skin. Bella stands discreetly to the side, eventually shifting to sit on a tree stump. Eventually Old Quil finishes and tosses another handful of herbs onto the fire, sending another plume of blue smoke into the air.

All the wolves are quite still, and Bella unconsciously holds her breath. But the peace is broken suddenly by loud snoring from Young Quil. Paul and Jared immediately start snickering, and Leah reaches over to punch Quil in the arm. Everyone sits up and starts to laugh. Everyone except Jacob, still in a trance, and Collin, who sits up and frowns.

Collin protests. "I was getting somewhere! You assholes ruined it!"

Suddenly, Jacob sits up. "He was. He was getting somewhere. I was watching from up there." He points up to the sky. "Quil wasn't the only one asleep," he accuses Embry. "And the rest of you were getting nowhere. But something else was going on with Collin until you all woke him up."

Jared snorts. "I might have had more luck if I didn't already know that that stuff is oregano," he points to Old Quil's bag of herbs, "and that song is a lullaby." Then he looks down at his chest covered in paint. "But you're a good artist," he tells Old Quil, who laughs.

"We'll try again individually," Old Quil answers. "Starting with Collin. Maybe it's in the blood," he says, referring to the Black genes.

"The other thing missing is the eagle," Leah adds, looking into the sky.

"The eagle?" asks Old Quil.

Jacob nods. "When I took my first spirit walk, I focused on an eagle circling way up there. It wasn't just any bird. It showed me how to find Bella. It helped me call the other animals to fight Cullen. And afterward, after we tricked away the leeches, it led me home."

"I think it's the same one that helped me fight off the leech on the highway, too," Leah adds.

"A taxilit?" Old Quil asks. They can hear the excitement in his voice. The legends of his childhood are all coming true.

"Maybe. It makes sense." Jacob notices Bella's confusion and clarifies, "A taxilit is a guardian spirit."

Old Quil continues. "Perhaps everyone else needs to find their own taxilit before they can travel on the astral plane. Your wolves have already found you. But perhaps there are other spirits to guide you. Before the time of the wolves, our spirit warriors communed with many different spirits, animal and otherwise."

"Do we need to go on spirit quests?" Sam asks.

Old Quil nods. "Start with Collin. Perhaps next weekend you can go on a spirit quest, son."

Collin looks uncomfortable. "I have a geometry test and a social studies project due next Monday. But I don't want to let anybody down," he mumbles.

Bella's heart rises into her throat at the same time Old Quil's face falls. They often forget how young the pack really is. Not for the first time, she gets angry at the existence of vampires. She hopes karma has rich rewards in store for these teenagers risking their lives to keep their people safe. She sighs audibly. At least the US government waits until a boy turns eighteen before drafting him for active duty. Brady and Collin were thirteen when they phased. But she fears there is no such thing as karma.

Jacob answers, "Don't worry about it. It would probably take longer than a weekend anyway. And no one wants you failing out of school. Maybe over a holiday break or something. Plus, you were getting somewhere anyway. Maybe in a couple weeks you and Old Quil and I can just work on spirit walking. When you have the time, just let us know." Collin nods and looks relieved.

After that, they all head for home. Bella and Rachel had decided to cook for their fathers, Jacob and Paul, Quil, and Embry. It provides a comfortable setting for Rachel to be with Paul, and Quil had been whining to Jacob that "bros come before hoes," a "man rule" that Jacob had apparently been neglecting. Quil sings an entirely different tune when Bella places a heaping plate chicken parmesan in front of him.

Bella spends the evening surreptitiously watching Paul watch Rachel, while Jacob spends the evening not so surreptitiously watching her. It leaves ample opportunity for Billy, Charlie, Quil, and Embry to mercilessly tease Jacob about being whipped. He happily argues with them not at all. And when he climbs in her bedroom window that night, he is entirely prepared to show his devotion to her with his lips and tongue. She decides she is a very lucky girl.

X-x-x-x-X

The next week passes without further incident. Jacob isn't able to coordinate his schedule with Collin's and Old Quil's to work on Collin's spirit walking, but he saves as much time as he can to spend with Bella. Their time together gives him flashbacks to the days when their friendship renewed itself in the confines of his garage. He finishes repairs on the Impala by Sunday, and on Tuesday he has a new project, a 1978 Harley Shovelhead.

"This is the second best kind of project," he says to Bella, smiling as he runs his hands over the handlebars.

"Second best?"

"A nice restoration that you get to spend someone else's money on," he grins. "All the entertainment of the rebuild, none of the cost. A little profit, actually."

"What's the first-best?" she asks.

"Your own restoration. That's why it took Mr. Harrison so long to finally hand this over to me. He wanted to rebuild it himself. That's most of the fun, you know?"

"So why doesn't he do it himself?" she asks, flipping open her laptop to work on her poetry analysis.

He answers, "Just doesn't have the time, I think. And some of the know-how. He's not incompetent or anything, but he hasn't ever restored a bike before. He does most of the maintenance on his other bike, a Yamaha, but it's a late model. Parts are much easier to come by, and it just doesn't need the kind of work that this one does."

Jacob bends to sort through his toolbox, and Bella admires his tight backside. She can't resist, so she sets her computer aside and approaches him from behind. There is no way to sneak up on him, of course, but he doesn't turn around until she tries to bend over to wrap herself around him. Instead, she winces from stiffness in her back. She ends up falling on him rather than seductively slithering over him like she meant to.

He laughs gently as he turns to scoop her up. "Still sore, aren't you?"

He sits on the loveseat with her in his lap. She rests her head on his shoulder and nods. "And less sexy than I was hoping to be."

He grins, but she can't see it from her position. "Never. You're the sexiest thing I've ever seen. Even better since I've got you right here." He squeezes her tightly before shifting her to sit on the floor in front of him. "Let me take care of some of those knots." He brushes her hair over her shoulder and starts to massage her neck and shoulders with his strong fingers and the heel of his hand. The increased temperature of his hands feels wonderful.

"Mmmm, Jacob," she hums. "It feels like I'm getting a massage from a heating pad." Her head falls forward limply, her chin resting against her chest.

"Glad I can help, honey," he smiles.

"You're so good with your hands," she purrs. "You should do this for real. You'd be the best masseuse ever." She leans forward a little more and winces again. Jacob feels the corresponding tightness in his hamstrings.

"Is it your thighs?" he asks.

She nods under his hands. "My neck feels great now, but I do feel it in my legs."

"Okay, hang on," he says as he retrieves a blanket from a storage bin in the corner. He spreads it out on the floor. "Lie on this. On your back." She complies, and he instructs, "Give me your left leg." He helps her stretch it toward her chest, then bends it at the knee and presses gently on it, leaning into her with her foot on his chest. He repeats the motion on the other side, then flips her over and helps her stretch her quads. They repeat the process several times. When he is done, he gives her another warming massage in her legs and lower back. By the time he is done she feels like a limp noodle.

She nearly falls asleep on the floor, but manages to mumble, "You should do that for real, Jake. You'd be a great masseuse. You're so good with your hands."

He chuckles. "I got a lot of practice after Billy ended up in the wheelchair. He needs help stretching his legs, otherwise the tendons and ligaments get really tight and kind of shrink up. I'm sad to say you're not my first when it comes to this, Bells, but I sure do like massaging you better than massaging my dad."

She rolls over. "Well, practice makes perfect, I guess. You could really do that for a living if you wanted."

"Huh," he settles back on his heels, looking down at her. "I never thought about it before, but maybe you're right."

She pushes herself up on her elbows, peering up at him. "Maybe you should. Of course, it's not what you always thought about doing for a living."

He sighs. He doesn't really want to think about his future right now. He wants Bella to have the opportunity to go anywhere, do anything, but he doesn't know if he can leave La Push. But he doesn't want to be left behind either. Now that she has mentioned it, he can't help but realize that her offhanded suggestion has some merit. His old dreams of being an engineer won't exactly land him a job in La Push, and his other notion of becoming an architect isn't a marketable skill anywhere in this area. But he could work as a masseuse or physical therapist here or in Forks, or take those skills elsewhere if he ever has the opportunity to move.

She frowns at his faraway look, so he breaks the tension. "You wouldn't mind me putting my hands on other women, then?"

She just frowns harder. "Forget I said anything. You should definitely be a mechanic." Then she gives him a little smirk. "I like it when you get all greasy."

The conversation is forgotten when he grins back at her and lowers himself over her. They lose themselves in sweet kisses. His lips are as soft and warm as his hands, and hers taste like vanilla from her lip balm. He licks at them until the only flavor left behind is pure Bella. Jacob gets so distracted by the feeling of her supple body under his that he forgets all about the Harley three feet away and his precalculus test awaiting him in the morning. He snakes his hand under her shirt and is close to tossing out the window his self-imposed restriction against making love to her until her bruises are gone.

That is, until the sound of sniggering filters in through the open doorway. Jacob huffs a disappointed noise against Bella's mouth as she blushes deeply. He slides his hand out from under her shirt, carefully covering her skin before he rolls off her to glare at his friends hovering in the entrance.

"Is now a bad time?" Embry begins dryly.

"What do you think?" Jacob snaps.

Quil answer jauntily, "If we'd waited a couple minutes we could have gotten a free show."

Embry puts on a falsified, thoughtful expression. "Unfortunately, half of that show we've seen a bunch of times already, and neither of us swings that way anyway."

Jacob growls, "And if you try to sneak a peek at the other half, I'll rip your eyeballs out with my bare hands, and you'll never see anything ever again."

Quil just grins. "That's okay, it was entertaining enough breaking up whatever you've got going on in here. We've decided that if we can't get any, no one else can either."

"Well, at least someone will accomplish their goals this afternoon," Jacob sighs.

Bella scrambles to gather her computer and books and slides past Quil and Embry. "That reminds me." She can't meet their eyes. "I've got to write this paper, and Jake has a test tomorrow."

Embry answers, "Yeah, that's why we're here. Jake has the answers to our math homework. This one," he gestures at Quil with his thumb, "slept through the class since he had patrol last night. He came to get mine, but no one can read my handwriting."

"I swear," Quil whines, "You write in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, not in legible numbers."

"It's a system," Embry replies. "If I get an answer wrong I claim that it was the right one and that the teacher just couldn't tell."

Jacob snorts and follows Bella into the house where his bookbag rests on the kitchen table. "That can't possibly work."

Quil takes Jacob's proffered notes, and Billy rolls into the room, looking at Bella's fading blush and Jacob's annoyance. Astutely, he invites Quil and Embry to stay for dinner. They both happily accept, and Jacob grumbles under his breath that everyone is a cockblocker. His father and Bella can't actually hear his words, but determine his sentiment anyway, while Embry leans in the doorway looking smug. Bella also realizes with embarrassment that she had left her Neruda text in the cab of her truck, currently parked in the Clearwaters' driveway. Leah has been driving them in Bella's car as her own transportation was totalled. Bella was so distracted by Jacob that it took her an hour to figure out the book was missing. She calls Leah, who arrives not long after, the slim volume in one hand and her phone in the other.

Leah squeezes onto the couch in between Embry and Quil, propping her feet on the table. Bella hears only half of Leah's telephone conversation, but the wolves hear the entire thing. She wouldn't have thought anything of it, but Quil, in particular, looks at Leah with interest.

After another minute, Leah hangs up. Bella looks between Quil and Leah and finally asks what the conversation was all about.

"Oh, that was my cousin, Jasmine. From my dad's side of the family. She's coming up for Christmas, wanted to let us know." The name triggers a faint memory in the back of Bella's mind and causes a little knot to form in the pit of her stomach. But she can't quite remember why. She looks at Jacob, who is simply staring at her with the same soft smile that he usually has on his face when he sees her.

Embry nods, "Yeah, I remember her. We were in elementary school together. She was good friends with Julie." At that statement, Jacob gives a knowing glance at Bella. Embry has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Julie for time immemorial, which both of them deny counts as dating.

Quil's eyes are bright. "Man, there's a blast from the past. Those girls followed us around like little magnets." And Bella finally remembers why she knows Jasmine's name. Just a few feet from where she sits, a photo album contains a picture of a small Jacob and small Jasmine, him pushing a toy around a sandbox, her gazing at him dreamily.

Embry scoffs. "Right. 'Us.'" He makes exaggerated air quotes with his fingers. "Jasmine and Katelyn were following him around," he points at Jacob. "You and I were just really short wingmen, and we didn't even know it."

Bella looks to Jacob for confirmation, and he shakes his head. "Julie was following him around," he grins and points at Embry, "and the others were along for the ride." Bella suspects that the latter point is entirely untrue, but she sees no reason to argue with her boyfriend about it.

Leah, however, has no such qualms. "Just admit it, Black. You've been a Lothario since you were in diapers. Aiming your big white smile at the pretty little princesses and making them drop their underoos." Embry and Quil snort with laughter, and they even hear Billy laughing from the kitchen.

"I dunno," Jacob answers. "I must have smiled at Bella about ten thousand times before any clothes fell off her."

Leah rises from the couch and moves to stand behind Bella, who sits on the floor by the coffee table across from her boyfriend. "Hmm. Let's give it a shot, Boss. Aim one right here." She points at Bella's head and winks at Jacob, who complies as he laughs in the girls' general direction. With supernatural speed, Leah grabs the back of Bella's shirt, and through it, her bra, somehow managing to undo the clasp through the fabric before Bella can protest.

"Hey! Leah, what the..." Bella sputters as she reaches around her back, swatting her friend away.

"Ooh," Embry coos. "Jake, do that again and see what happens. Screw spirit walking. That's the best possible trick!"

"Damn," Quil laughs as he nearly falls off the couch. "I know what I'm gonna dream about tonight!" He ogles both girls in an exaggerated fashion. "I've seen exactly what you look like plenty of times," he waggles his eyebrows at Leah and then points at Jacob, "And that one has let a few choice images slip through the pack mind, so I don't even have to guess at what it would look like!"

Bella blushes bright red in mortification while Leah just places her hand on one hip and smirks. "You can look as much as you want, Ateara. But try to touch and I'll tie your dick in a knot." Satisfied that she has had the last word, Leah winks at the boys and slips out the door.

X-x-x-x-X

The following Saturday, Jacob invites Bella to his home for dinner. When she arrives, finally able to drive her own truck without feeling a tugging pain in her neck every time she tries to look over her shoulder, Jacob pulls her from the driver's seat and swings her around, hugging her enthusiastically. "Hey," he exclaims. "I can crush you again!"

"Mmm." She buries her face in his neck and replies, "As tightly as you want. I'm all better now." He starts walking her back to the house without letting her down. She giggles, "I'm even well enough to walk, Jake."

"That's great, Bells," he answers enthusiastically, not slowing in his movements. So she simply giggles and wraps her legs around his waist.

He opens the door, and she immediately inhales a delicious scent. He walks her into the kitchen, plopping her down on the kitchen counter next to the stove, where he stirs a simmering pot of pasta sauce with one hand. He doesn't feel like letting go of her, so he keeps his other arm wrapped around her waist. "Pasta for dinner?" she asks.

"Yeah. Billy's at Sue's for dinner and to play cards, so I figured we'd indulge. He doesn't get to eat much pasta, it's bad for his blood sugar, and I sometimes feel bad eating it in front of him. But he's not here, so it's all ours."

Bella doesn't hear any other sounds in the house. "Paul's not gonna steal half of it?"

Jacob snorts. "He wouldn't steal half, he'd steal the whole thing if he could get away with it. Nah, he's visiting Rachel in Seattle this weekend."

A smirk spreads across Bella's face. "So we've got the place to ourselves for a while?"

"For a bit, yeah," Jacob answers. It takes him all of five seconds to catch up with Bella. He meets her gaze and returns her sly smile. "Which begs the question of why we're out here with all our clothes on, doesn't it?"

She nods slowly back at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. "Maybe 'cause you're a little slow on the uptake, Black."

Before she can quite register what is happening, Jacob sweeps her off the countertop, sprints down the hallway to his bedroom, and tosses her onto the bed. Before she stops bouncing he has the door locked and stands in front of her, wholly nude. "Quick enough for ya'?" he chuckles as her mouth drops open in surprise. She just blinks at him for several seconds, and his lips turn up in a slight smirk. "You're behind, Bells. Need me to help you catch up?" She nods wordlessly and sits up.

He stalks toward her with the same cocky grin, and his gaze flits between the buttons of her flannel shirt and her mouth. She expects him to rip her clothes off, but he just looks at her, and the mood shifts from playful to tender. After a beat, he chooses her lips and descends to brush his full, soft lips against hers. She feels tingling immediately in the spot where they meet. He doesn't deepen the kiss, simply nuzzling back and forth. Despite the lightness of his touch, heat spreads through her. She leans forward into him, but he leans back and ducks down slightly to ghost his lips over her chin and then along her neck, not quite coming in direct contact with her skin. Her head drops back as she releases her held breath with a wordless whisper.

Her top button was already undone, and with a delicate touch he slides the next two buttons open to expose a little of her skin to the open air. She feels his hot breath along her sensitive collarbone. She isn't even certain Jacob is actually touching her skin, but his proximity alone causes her body to flush in response. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, he slips each button through its hole until her shirt hangs loose on her shoulders. He eases it off her, still not making direct contact with her skin.

Her body is acutely aware of every inch of him. The heat of his breath slides across her chest as he reaches around to undo her simple black bra, somehow doing so without touching her flesh. He slides it down her arms and tosses it onto the floor, then leans over her as he locks his eyes with hers in wordless communication. He moves forward, very slowly, and she instinctively leans back until she is lying flush on his bed.

He drops his gaze to the button on her jeans. She reaches to open it, but he stops her with a simple look. She lowers her hands to the sheets, and he pops open the button himself. Her belly tightens as she watches him slowly lower her zipper. He stares at her smooth skin, now free of bruises, and her body temperature rises a degree in response to the blatant lust in his eyes. He hooks his fingers into her belt loops, so she raises her hips to allow him to slide her pants and socks off. They join her pile of clothes on the floor, and she is left only in her black bikini panties, his mother's ring, and the bracelet he wove for her.

Jacob stares and stares. He still hasn't touched her but for the barely-there kiss, but she is as aroused as she would be if his lips were caressing her most sensitive spots. He examines every inch of her skin. Every minute imperfection is flawless to him because they belong to his Bella. Even the crescent shaped scars on her wrists are precious to him because they are a part of her.

Slowly he bends over her waiting form. He simply breathes her in. His lips hover over her breasts, her stomach, her hips, her thighs. She can feel him right there, so close, energy radiating off him in waves and washing over her, just a millimeter away. But still he does not touch her. He lingers. He memorizes. He loves.

He kneels on the bed and crawls over her. His lips part on a groan, and his hot breath washes over her nipple. She arches her back, pressing her breasts toward him, but he backs up just far enough to avoid direct contact.

"So goddamn beautiful," he whispers.

Bella balances right on the line of sanity. Her body hums, and he has barely touched her. She is desperate for his skin on hers, his body inside hers, his moans of pleasure echoing off the walls and colliding with hers. But she knows him. She knows that he is in control, that he will go at his own pace, and that everything he is doing is designed exactly for her, intended to bring her to heights of ecstasy. She fists the sheets in her hands to keep from grabbing him.

He knows the effect he has on her. He can see it in her expression, hear it in her ragged breath and racing heartbeat, smell it in the scent of her arousal. He knows her body far better than he knows his own. With infinite patience, he has discovered every single sensitive spot on her skin, and he knows exactly how to draw from her whatever reaction he wishes. And now she thrums with need. He relishes her desire. It makes him feel powerful.

Finally, he brushes the soft skin of her abdomen with his long eyelashes. She vibrates beneath him and releases a shaky sigh. He slides down just far enough to brush his lips above her right hip, then her left, a centimeter away from the straps of her underwear. He looks up at her under hooded eyes and finally grasps her panties with his teeth and draws them off her. Her skin is on fire where his mouth trails down. She gasps and lifts her hips toward him, but he pulls away, places his hands on his hips and just looks at her.

When he is certain she won't try anything else, he lowers himself again. This time he runs the tip of his nose along the edge of her navel. His lips are so close to where she really wants them. But instead he crawls up her body again.

He hovers over her again, arms locked in front of him, hands on either side of her head, carefully avoiding further contact. But his eyes burn into hers. She is unable to look away. She doesn't want to. Billy could stumble upon them, and if Jacob didn't break their gaze, neither would she. Her arousal ratchets higher.

And then his lips are on hers. But these are not the feathery kisses from before. These kisses melt him into her. As he exhales, she inhales, taking the air from his lungs directly into hers. She wants to absorb his very essence into her. His tongue dips into her mouth again and again, and his fingers tangle into her hair. She becomes dizzy from his touch.

Jacob carefully holds his body off of hers. He resists the urge to bury himself inside her so that he can concentrate on the sensation of her pliant mouth under his. He loves the shape of it, the natural pout that the fullness of the lower lip creates. Before she let him taste it, he had to concentrate not to stare at it. He loved it when she talked about absolutely anything since it gave him an excuse to look. And before he became Alpha, when he had little control over which of his thoughts his pack brothers could see, they teased him mercilessly about how often he daydreamed about what her mouth would look like wrapped around his cock, or worse yet, how often he simply thought of the little curve of it when she smiled. It turns out that reality surpasses any of his adolescent fantasies.

Bella reaches around Jacob's back, trying to pull him down against her, but he will not be moved. His skin is hot under her hands. She marvels at the supple skin sliding over solid muscle, strong but yielding at the same time. After becoming used to hard, cold stone, Jacob feels like fire personified. He consumes her as completely as a flame. He is raw energy and passion, and he is all hers.

After endless minutes he releases her lips and slides down her body. He pauses to kiss along the column of her neck, and she shivers. He settles his cheek between her breasts for several seconds and lets out a ragged sigh before brushing against her breast with the tip of his nose, inhaling her scent. When he reaches her nipple, he gently, slowly traces the edge of the areola with the tip of his tongue as she gasps. Around, and around, and around. She arches her back to him, but he pulls away each time, refusing to take her into his mouth or lave with his tongue like she wants.

Instead, he shifts up to press the lightest possible kiss to the mark on her breast. She groans as he retreats. He grins at the sound, and he ducks his head to rest his cheek on her belly. Then he lightly runs the tips of the fingers of his right hand up and down her sensitive side. Energy sparks at each point of contact. He traces a meandering path across her skin. She threads her fingers through his silky hair and massages his scalp as he hums with pleasure.

"Your heart is racing," he murmurs.

"Then yours is too, isn't it?" she responds.

"Yeah. Still in the same rhythm as yours."

He kisses her hip before settling between her thighs. He drops tiny kisses across her lips and examines her. She quivers but is otherwise still.

"So pink," he breathes. "So pretty."

He presses his lips to her clitoris, and she squirms. He doesn't further the contact, but instead leans back and runs his large, hot hands up and down her legs. His voice drops so low that she can barely hear him at all. "So soft. So smooth."

He returns to the juncture of her thighs and laps delicately at her, to the right, to the left, avoiding her clitoris altogether. She pants with want and tightens her grip in his hair. He relishes the sensation.

"Don't tease, Jacob," she whispers.

His voice rumbles back, "Mmm. But you come so hard after I tease you." She only manages a whimper in response as he tilts his head to lean against her thigh. So he smiles and reaches his fingers up, his touch a bare tickle against her entrance.

"Please..."

His voice is still low. "Is this what you want?" he asks, still running his fingers up and down, but not high enough, and not inside. She is so in tune with his touch that she imagines she can feel the very ridge of each fingerprint, every single point where his skin meets hers. It isn't nearly enough.

She tugs at him. "God, Jacob. More..."

And he cannot resist the pleading tone of her voice. He slips one finger into her tight pussy, and she gasps and arches against him. He holds still and tries to focus on her body's response, the clenching of her muscles around him, the wet heat of her as she writhes on him. But he is distracted by an answering throb of his own cock laying neglected on the mattress. He curls his finger exactly where she loves it, and she gasps, bucking against his hand. He has to physically hold himself still to keep himself from pumping into the mattress. Suddenly he is as desperate as she is. He squeezes his eyes shut in concentration and massages her inner walls. "Unhhh..." she moans. He doesn't realize until after he hears it that he has groaned along with her. If he didn't know any better, he could have sworn her hands were on him as well.

He slides a second finger into her and begins to pump gently. Pleasure shoots out from her core and through her body, echoing through his as well. This has happened ever since their dream encounter after he tricked away the Volturi. Their lovemaking has gained a new intensity, a heightened sense of awareness of the other. But it was not until Bella's painful injuries were reflected by corresponding sensations in Jacob's body, miles away, that he realized exactly what was going on. He can feel what she feels. Both pain and pleasure alike. Not only did he feel the impact of Leah's car against the nomadic vampire, but the exquisite sensations he brings her reverberate through his own form. He had noticed it, to a lesser extent, the times he crawled into her bed in the days after she was hurt to lap and suckle and nibble at her until she came, but was too distracted by her injuries to realize just how deep their bond had become.

Now he experiments with his theory. He lowers himself to her clitoris and finally, finally laves at it with his tongue as he curls his fingers within her. Sure enough, not only does Bella let go of his hair to cover her own face with her hands with a shaking cry, but Jacob feels a blissful sensation ripple through his hardened length. He pauses for a second, causing Bella to whimper for more, and his body calms slightly.

He takes deep, steadying breaths and tries to concentrate on pleasuring her. He doesn't want his newly found connection with her to push him over the edge when he brings her to orgasm. So rather than immediately allowing her the release she so fiercely desires, he teases her longer. He brings her to the brink, and then he pulls away. He switches from lingering licks to gentle sweeps to rapid flicks and back again. He sucks her engorged bundle of nerves between his pillowed lips, but only for a few seconds, not long enough for her to come. His fingers pump, then curl, then twist, then still. He brings her to the brink, then backs quickly down, over and over and over. All the while he tries to get his own body under control. He always loves doing this to her, giving her the sweetest torture imaginable, but this newfound phenomenon makes it even better for him while simultaneously challenging him to maintain his deeply held control.

And as Jacob explores their new connection, Bella grows delirious with wanton tension. No matter how often he does this to her, and she knows he loves doing this to her, she still manages somehow to be surprised at how long he draws out her pleasure. But she doesn't know how much more of it she can take without a release.

Finally, she begs, "Oh, please, please let me come."

He separates from her long enough to rasp out, "I will, honey. I'll make you come so hard. And then I'll do it again. Promise."

Jacob locks away the reflected sensations in his own body as best he can. He tries to keep in mind that the waves of bliss passing through him are actually hers and not his own, and the knowledge helps somewhat. So after a few more minutes of bringing her close, then letting her down again, when her skin glistens with perspiration and her pleading moans fill his ears, he strokes his fingers in the spot that drives her mad, suckles her clitoris between his lips and flicks the tip with his soft, hot tongue until she wails her ecstatic release. He very nearly comes right along with her, but refuses to do so outside of her body. Then slowly, gently, he lets her down.

She returns to awareness a few minutes later to find his hands slid behind her back, cupping her shoulderblades, and his mouth wrapped around her left nipple. She grasps his hair again and pulls him more firmly against her. This time he complies with her wishes. He won't tease her any longer. He couldn't take it even if he wanted to. He switches to his teeth, delicately, and renewed waves of energy shoot back down into her center. Her whole body vibrates against his. He reaches up to pinch her other nipple. He twists it hard. They both know how much she likes it, and he is happy to oblige.

His mouth on her is perfection. He moans around her flesh, causing vibrations to spread outward. The heat of his wide tongue is exactly what she needs where she needs it. She would not be able to tolerate more stimulation of her oversensitive clitoris, but this is simply wonderful. He lets go of her with a little pop and switches sides, growling a little as he attacks her other breast. Now he has better control of the echoing sensations flowing from her body to his, so he doesn't hold back. He listens to her whimpers and pants until she is right on the edge, then moves to the mark he left on her breast. He rakes it with his teeth, then massages it with his tongue until she comes again, choking out his name.

And he cannot wait to be inside her any longer. It has been more than two weeks since he last experienced her sweet pussy, and her own orgasms have left him incredibly aroused and wanting.

He crawls up and looks into her eyes. He finds himself falling into their brown depths. She returns his gaze with equal ardor. There is no one else in the world but her. There has never been another in his heart. And she knows that no one else could ever love her as truly as he does.

She places her open palm over his beating heart as he guides himself into her. The stretch of him is incredible, even more so since she hasn't been with him in so long. So he moves slowly to keep her as comfortable as possible. She bites her bottom lip involuntarily, and the sight of it nearly makes him lose control and slam into her. But now, he can not only see that his enormous girth causes a burning in her entrance, but he can feel the echo in himself as well. He moans aloud when he senses just how good the pain feels to Bella.

When he is finally buried in her to the hilt, he places his own hand on her heart just as she has over his. "Do you feel that, baby?" he whispers. Her heart slams against her ribs in time with his own. He came so close to losing her, to losing this, so many times. He will never take her beating heart for granted. He would have stayed with her even had Edward succeeded in turning her into his mortal enemy, but he is so, so glad to keep her this way.

She nods. "I feel all of you, Jacob."

He begins to move. His rhythm is slow and gentle at first. He braces himself with his left arm on the bed and feels her heartbeat speed with his right as the friction between them builds. She hums a low, sexy sound and he smiles to hear it, still looking deeply into her eyes. Her lips spread wide and turn up to match his happy expression, and her hum turns into a happy moan.

He picks up his speed but remains gentle and tender. As much as he loves to take her roughly, as wild with lust as it makes her, tonight is not for feral fucking or demonstrations of sexual power. And the sensations pouring through them are heightened at baseline due their new connection, for each time he slides inside her, he feels not only the bliss shooting through his cock, but the parallel sensation she experiences radiating out from her core.

Her blissfully happy, sensual expression buoys him up. He lives to make her happy, and he loves to fulfill her body's secret desires. He turns the hand he has on her chest to grasp the one she is using to feel his heartbeat. He threads his fingers through hers and pins her hand next to her head. He lowers his lips back to hers and kisses her deeply, never breaking stride.

Bella is barely aware of her surroundings. Her blood thrums in her ears, and the sound of it reverberates in her brain. She tastes the salty, clean flavor of his skin. Her flesh is ablaze wherever it meets his. She breathes in the very essence of her lover. As he strokes within her, again and again, she is lost in a rapturous haze of Jacob.

When he releases her from the kiss, he tilts his hips so that the base of his cock drags against her clitoris with every withdrawal. Her eyes slip shut, she throws her head back, and her lips open into a wide "o" as she moans and shifts her hips to increase the contact. He feels his own body respond to hers, and he doesn't know how much longer he can hold on. He can feel their connection, and he wants it as open as possible.

"Keep your eyes open," his husky voice commands her. "Look at me."

She blinks up at him with her wide, pretty eyes, and the bond is sealed. He cannot hold back any longer. His thrusts grow firm, his heart swells with hers, and he slams into her. The huge head of his cock pounds against her cervix, and he grinds against her clit. Once she meets his eyes again she is unable to look away. He compels her to be fully in this moment with him. His love envelops her. She breathes it in and returns it to him in full. They move together in the physical manifestation of their devotion.

She wants to tell him how much he means to her, how thankful she is, and how good he makes her feel. But she has no words. Her loving thoughts cannot be translated into coherent language in the midst of the blissful tremors passing from him into her. Instead, she whimpers gasping cries with each stroke of his cock. But she does not look away from him, and he sees. And finally, endlessly, rapturously, they explode and merge together, her climax elevating his own to new heights, and for her, the same.

X-x-x-x-X


	6. Chapter 5

X-x-x-x-X  
Thanksgiving  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob doesn't mention his ability to feel Bella's pain (or pleasure) to anyone else until Thanksgiving. The day is cold and rainy, but inside the little red house there is ample warmth. Paul and Rachel sit at the kitchen table snapping green beans they will contribute to dinner. Jacob stands at the sink washing and peeling carrots.

"Dude, she has you whipped. When's the last time you prepared vegetables that didn't come out of a can?" he teases Paul.

Paul glowers at him, but before he can produce a biting response, Rachel laughs and answers, "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!"

Jacob has to concede the point but adds, "Yeah, I'm whipped. Everybody knows it. But I have prepared vegetables on my own before. Who do you think cooks dinner around here?"

"Me!" protests Billy as he rolls into the kitchen. Paul snickers.

"Actually, Bella. And me. Only you guys if you're desperate and starving," Rachel teases.

"Yes, now, "Jacob rolls his eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "But up until a few months ago we were real bachelors, and we cooked for ourselves."

"And now you take credit for microwaving the stuff she sends over," Billy laughs.

Jacob crosses to the refrigerator, when suddenly he stumbles over nothing at all with an odd grunt. Paul laughs at Jacob in surprise. Billy looks quizzically at his son as he rights himself. "You may be spending too much time with Bella if she's rubbing off on you so much you get clumsy like her, son."

"I'm not sure that was clumsiness. My ankle hurt all of a sudden and sort of buckled."

"Yeah, right," Paul mutters.

Billy frowns at Jacob. "Odd. It better now?"

"Um, doesn't feel normal. Let me call Bells, see if she's okay." He twists his foot experimentally and steps to the phone. "Hey, Charlie... Yeah, in a couple hours. Hey, is Bella there? Sure... She okay?" He pauses and waits, frowning at the wall. "Shoot. She gonna be alright? Need a visit to the ER? I can drive her... Well, figures you would," he chuckles weakly. "May as well just keep one of every kind of splint they make... We can be there earlier and we can pitch in more... Yeah, but who cares about that game anyway? The Lions lose every single year... Well, there's a reason the Cowboys get the primetime spot... Sure. Sure... See you then, bye."

"Bella hurt herself?" Rachel asks.

"Slipped in the shower and twisted her ankle."

Billy furrows his brow in confusion. "And you knew to call because..."

Jacob replies, "It's why my ankle hurt. 'Cause she hurt hers. Same thing happened when that vamp tried to take her out on the way home from Port Angeles. When she crashed into the leech, I could feel where the seatbelt dug into her skin, the whiplash, all of it."

Billy's eyes widen. "Has it happened before? Does it go the other way too?"

"Nothing like that happened before we got rid of the Italian leeches. And I haven't really gotten injured since then, so I can't say if she'd feel it. Um, something else happened too." He isn't about to tell his family about their ability to feel each other's erotic sensations as well, but he ought to have told Billy about the other phenomenon before. "Our heartbeats are the same now."

"What do you mean?" Billy tilts his head.

"The rhythm, the pace. They match. If you take my pulse and hers they feel the same. What does it mean, Dad?"

Billy looks perplexed. "I'm not sure. It's not what imprints feel, is my understanding. That ever happen to you guys?" He turns to Rachel and Paul who shake their heads in surprise.

Rachel double checks by reaching for Paul's neck while she puts the fingers of her other hand to her own. She can't help but notice how he leans into her touch, and his eyes slip shut. Her own skin flushes in an involuntary response to him. His pulse and her own speed at the connection, but not in the same rhythm. She stutters to her father, "N-No. Not the same."

"Seems like a good way to warn you if something's happening to her, doesn't it?" Billy turns back to Jacob.

Jacob nods. "Seems like an upside to me. But you look worried," he probes. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Paul staring intently at his sister. Rachel pointedly looks away from Paul and toward him, but both Paul and Jacob can hear her racing heart and see the rush of blood under her skin.

"This is probably just parental paranoia speaking. But what if one of your hearts stops? What happens to the other?"

The thought startles Jacob. He had not considered this before. His first thought is that he doesn't have any interest in living longer than Bella, and it would be a relief not to try to survive her passing. But the opposite is not true. He doesn't want anything to happen to her just because something happens to him. And if his life goes the way he wants it to, if he can really make a life with Bella, have children with her, he doesn't want their children to be vulnerable to losing two parents at once. He barely moved on after Sarah died, and truthfully, a part of him never did. What would he have done if he had lost Billy and Sarah at the same time?

Billy interrupts his son's nervous train of thought and his daughter's heightened tension with a semi-serious attempt at humor. "You're gonna be in trouble. That girl could knock herself out cold lying still in her own bed. Next time she does, I sure hope you don't pass out in the middle of something important."

The mood breaks, and they rush to gather their things to take to the Swans' and assist Bella. As soon as a tray of brownies comes out of the oven, they are ready to go. Jacob laughs as Rachel smacks Paul away from the treats with a spatula, but two minutes later Paul gloats when Rachel catches Jacob in the midst of a similar failed attempt.

Billy and Paul plant themselves next to Charlie in front of the football game as soon as they walk in the front door. Rachel heads to the kitchen where Bella limps around. Jacob hovers in sight of the screen until the score appears and then joins Bella and Rachel in the kitchen.

Paul calls after him, "Your balls are retracting to make a pussy!"

Bella coughs in surprise before she starts laughing, while Jacob yells back, "It's the Patriots versus the Lions. I don't care what the score is now, we all know how this game is going to end. The Lions lost the last six Thanksgiving games in a row. The defensive line is going to crumble against Brady."

"The Lions are up by two touchdowns!" Billy answers.

"Who cares? Come get me for the Saints/Cowboys game," Jacob yells back. Then he sweeps Bella up for a soft, sweet kiss. "Happy Thanksgiving. How's your ankle?"

"Not the worst I've done to myself," she answers, arms slung around his neck. She looks at him with mirth. "Kiss it better?"

He sets her down on the kitchen table and kneels to take the injured joint in his hands. "Oh, it's getting swollen, honey." He presses his lips to it and asks, "Where's the splint? Your dad said you had one."

She points to a nondescript lump in the corner of the kitchen. "I couldn't get it undone."

"So you threw it over there?" Rachel asks as she puts ice in a plastic baggie, handing it to Bella. "Prop your foot up and put this on it before it gets any more swollen."

"But I have to cook Thanksgiving dinner!" Bella protests.

"Today you have sous chefs. Use us. I'll even get Paul in here if we need him, although the only thing he's liable to do is burn our meal," Rachel answers.

"I resent that!" Paul yells from the next room. "I am perfectly capable of opening cans and operating microwaves."

"This from the man who stuck a tin can in a microwave!" Rachel yells back.

"Only once," he defends himself. "I never did that again!"

Jacob backs up Rachel. "Because you permanently broke your microwave! Listen to Rachel. She's bossy. There's no point in arguing." He picks Bella off the table and places her in a chair, dragging another over so she can elevate her leg. Then he retrieves the brace, which is made from soft leather and secured with a long shoelace which has somehow become hopelessly tangled. Rather than neatly passing through each row of openings, the shoelace hangs from only one side and resembles a giant knot. He tries hard not to laugh. "How did you manage to do this? It's so simple. The lace just threads through the eyelets. How did this happen?"

"I don't know," Bella pouts. "I got annoyed with it the last time I used it and yanked it off and tossed it in a bag. That happened inside the bag."

Jacob just chuckles at her while patiently untangling the knot with his large but surprisingly dextrous fingers. Five minutes later he slips it over her ankle and secures it. "Too tight?" Bella shakes her head as she runs her fingers through his thick hair. She thanks him and leans over for a kiss until Billy interrupts from the next room.

"Hey now, none of that. People have to eat food in that room."

Bella looks over, perplexed. Billy can't see them around the corner. How does he know?

Paul snickers, and she realizes that he probably clued in their fathers with his extraordinary sense of hearing. She looks at Rachel, who is looking into the living room and grinning. Bella wonders if things are progressing between Paul and Rachel but doesn't have the opportunity to ask.

"Okay, put us to work. You're in charge. Just tell us what to do."

For the next three hours, Bella directs Rachel and Jacob as they prepare Thanksgiving dinner. Or rather, she directs Jacob and lets Rachel have free reign. Jacob is a reasonably good cook, as evidenced by the meals he has prepared for her, but Thanksgiving dinner is a different thing altogether. Preparing a romantic dinner for two or keeping himself and Billy fed isn't the same as a huge family dinner. And cooking a feast for nine people is hard enough, but when four of them are werewolves, the necessary amount of food is ridiculous.

At six o'clock, just as Jacob pulls the rolls out of the oven, a knock sounds at the front door. The Clearwaters pile in as they try to protect their food from the cold winter rain, and the house is full. Leah bears a delicious sweet potato casserole, Sue carries in homemade apple and pumpkin pies, and Seth lugs in a second turkey. People sprawl on every surface.

Bella looks at her father through the open kitchen door. He glances at her with a smile before getting in an animated conversation with Seth about Drew Brees, Tony Romo, and a broken bone. Bella's interest peaks briefly and morbidly at the mention of the injury before becoming bored and tuning them out. But she continues watching her father. He looks happier than she has ever seen him. She thinks of him as a loner, but seeing him here, his expression open, relaxed, and smiling wide, she wonders why that is.

These people are Charlie's family almost as much as she is. And considering how many more holiday dinners he spent with them than with her, in some ways they are more so. Leah, assisting Jacob in arranging their buffet along the counter, sees Bella looking at her father. "He's a good man, Bella. I'm glad you stuck around to get to know him better." Her voice is a little thick, and Bella knows she is thinking about Harry.

A moment later, Rachel startles Bella slightly by handing her a glass with what looks like a small amount of white wine. She glances up quizzically until she follows Rachel's line of sight to Billy in the next room. He holds his glass high, and everyone else follows suit. "To Harry. Best friend, loving husband, wonderful father. We miss you, but on this day of thanks we are all grateful to have had the honor of knowing you. We are all better people for having known you, and we'll never forget you. And we'll eat your share of the food tonight," he says with a twinkle in his eye. "To Harry."

"To Harry," everyone responds. Jacob clasps Leah's shoulder briefly, and she looks at him.

She raises her glass just a little and says quietly, "And to Sarah."

Jacob's eyes widen perceptibly, and Rachel stops in her tracks. Simultaneously, from the next room Charlie and Sue respond, "To Sarah." Billy smiles a little and looks down at his shoes before raising his glass and tipping back a large gulp. They all follow suit. Paul appears at Rachel's side and takes her hand. She allows him to lead her out onto the back porch. Through the screen door a few sniffling sounds and low murmurs are audible. Bella glances out and sees them sitting on the step. The eaves protect them from the rain. Paul rubs Rachel's back gently and she leans into him a little.

Jacob calls from across the room, "Bells, where's the carving knife?"

She points him to the correct drawer, and he fishes it out, handing it to Charlie while he goes to retrieve the card table. As soon as the turkey is carved, the werewolves' appetites take over the briefly melancholy mood.

Paul and Rachel return in a few minutes, and a good natured argument about Thanksgiving follows.

"It's a nice tradition and all, seeing family and being thankful for what you have," Rachel begins. "But isn't it a little strange for us to celebrate the Pilgrims showing up and, you know, overrunning the country?"

The discussion degenerates from there until Seth calls from the living room, "The only people who talk about that Pilgrims and Indians story are eight years old and under. This holiday celebrates the virtues of food and football. That makes it the best holiday of the year."

The men agree with Seth's wisdom, but then a debate begins about whether Christmas is better. None of the attendants are churchgoers, but several argue that the gift exchange of Christmas rivals the football on Thanksgiving. Leah breaks in to deem as creepy the tradition of bringing small children to a mall to sit on a stranger's lap to ask for presents. She is playfully called a scrooge by her own mother. No conclusion is drawn, but eventually Leah's phone rings and she steps outside to take it, staying on the porch and out of the rain. Bella notices Jacob pause very briefly from his food to tilt his head and look out at Leah. Almost instantly he returns to his meal.

"Something up?" Bella asks.

Jacob drops his hand to her knee and squeezes. "Don't think so. She doesn't sound upset or anything." Then he stands for his third helping of food.

A few minutes later, Leah returns. Jacob is on his fourth plate. She cocks a brow at him. "You'd better hope you never stop phasing. Otherwise you'll balloon to three hundred pounds in six months."

Jacob just smiles beatifically at Leah and answers, "Then there'll just be more of me to love."

She snorts and goes to the next room where her mom sits. "That was Jasmine. They'll be in at 3pm on the 23rd. I'll get them from the airport; all my finals are over by then."

Sue brightens. "Oh, lovely. Would they like to stay with us?"

Leah shakes her head. "They're staying with Aunt Meg."

"No surprise there, I suppose," Sue answers. "The sisters were always closer to each other than they were to Harry, and now, well..."

"Wait," Paul interrupts. "Jacob's little shadow is coming?"

Sue looks bemused, and Billy clarifies, "Jasmine used to follow Jacob around the same way Jacob followed Bella."

"I didn't know that. She was always a pretty little thing," Sue answers.

Bella looks at Jacob. He squirms as Rachel teases, "Becca and I called her the founding member of your fan club."

"Did you know?" Bella asks him.

"Know what?" Jacob responds blankly.

Bella can't help but laugh. "You're cute when you're dense."

Paul snickers. "He must be damn good looking, then."

Jacob just looks more puzzled. Bella leans over to kiss him on the nose. "Did you know she had such a big crush, silly."

Jacob shakes his head and waves his fork in his hand. "Oh, don't listen to them. She didn't have a crush. She just liked to play with us. All of us. Quil and Embry too. Like I said before, Julie had a crush on Embry, and that's why they hung out with us all the time."

Leah snorts in reply. "You keep telling yourself that, loverboy."

Jacob just pulls Bella from her chair into his lap. "Only one girl has a crush on me, and man, is the feeling ever mutual." He squeezes her tightly around the middle, nuzzling his nose into her hair, and wishes her father wasn't watching them. And that Charlie wasn't adept with firearms.

Leah scoffs. "Only one girl has a crush on you? For a guy with supernatural senses, you are completely blind."

Jacob grins and nips at Bella's lips with his own. "I'm not blind. It's just that I only see one girl. I belong to you, right?"

"Don't you forget it," Bella answers. Jacob's light attack of her lips turns into a searching kiss until they hear Charlie clear his throat loudly. Bella pulls away, embarrassed.

Paul barks a laugh. "Hey, that's nothing. You should see it when they..." He is interrupted by Rachel's hand suddenly clamping over his mouth.

Rachel is leans up to whisper harshly in his ear, "Are you some kind of idiot?" Bella turns to look at the pair. Paul has a mischievious glint in his eye.

"No, Rachel," Bella explains. "He was trying to get you to throw yourself at him."

Rachel looks indignant as she drops her hand. Then Paul just looks smug. "Hey, it worked, didn't it?"

A few minutes later, Rachel's phone rings too. She shrieks as she answers, and Bella finds the high pitched sound incomprehensible. Jacob explains, "That squeal can only mean one thing. Becca." And he's right. When Rachel gets off the phone a few minutes later she is so excited that she jumps into Paul's arms.

Jacob can't help but notice the surprised and glazed expression on Paul's face as he registers Rachel's body pressed to his. After a beat, Paul squeezes Rachel gently. His entire form molds itself to hers. She coughs when she realizes where she is, and he reluctantly lowers her to the ground, but he cannot bear to let go of her. She turns away from him, but he keeps a hand on her shoulder. It takes conscious effort to keep the touch light.

"Jasmine isn't the only one coming home for Christmas. Becca is flying in on the 22nd and staying for a week. She's bringing Solomon."

Billy's eyes light up, and Jacob grins widely. Rachel informs everyone of Rebecca's life in Hawaii, but rapidly loses the attention of all the men to the Cowboys versus Saints game on television. It isn't until Rachel pulls out dessert that the men can focus on anything else. But the attention is short lived. The guys all take their slices back to the living room, while the girls migrate to the kitchen.

Bella notices Rachel poking at her pumpkin pie without actually eating it. "What's up, Rach?"

Rachel shrugs. "Nothing. Just had an unpleasant thought is all."

"That doesn't sound like nothing," Leah says dryly.

"I just... I was so excited to see Becca again, but it occurred to me, what if someone imprints on her? Embry or your brother, or God forbid, little Brady?"

Leah stops chewing in the middle of a bite. "Damn," she mutters.

"I mean, they all say it's rare. But Sam and Paul and Jared and Quil? And the bloodlines seem to be important. She's my twin sister. What if Paul imprints on her too? We've got the same DNA."

Bella is speechless, and all Leah can say is, "Shit."

Sue scowls at her daughter. "No swearing."

Leah looks chagrined. "Sorry, but what if Rachel is right? Not only is Rebecca married, but she lives in Hawaii."

"Paul's doing okay without me here all the time, but I'm just a few hours away. Not an ocean," Rachel answers. Bella keeps her mouth shut. Paul is doing okay, it's true, most of the time. But he has an empty, haunted look in his eye. He looks visibly tired whenever Rachel leaves. She simply doesn't see it since he does so much better when she is around. On the other hand, his edges have softened. Whether or not she is there, his cutting humor is less biting and is genuinely funnier. The pack is thrilled that they don't have to endure endless cycles of pornographic memories during patrol, although Jared likes to tease Paul that his sappy thoughts of Rachel are worthy of a girl. And most shockingly, he has followed Rachel's instruction to try to see other women.

His decision to do so led him to seek advice from Leah, of all people. According to Leah, who gleefully told the tale to Bella one day during their commute to Peninsula, he came to her with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs to ask her what he should do. He clearly would have been more comfortable, in Leah's words, "yanking out his own fingernails". But he wanted to comply with Rachel's instructions despite having no idea how to go about it. Asking one of his brothers for such advice seemed like a fate worse than death, so he sought out Leah as a last resort after a disastrous attempt at picking up a stranger at a bar. After all, she was privy to his mind and memories whether or not he wanted her to be, unlike the only other candidates for advice, Kim, Emily, and Bella. It was clear to her that his level of romantic or lustful interest in any woman other than Rachel Black was simply nonexistent. They mutually agreed that it would be entirely unfair for him to ask another stranger on a date, both to him and the unsuspecting woman. Unbeknownst to him, the stranger at the bar knew Paul from his reputation. She was the opposite of the sort of woman that Rachel had in mind when she asked Paul to try to see other people, and she was not only disappointed, but drunken and angry, when he refused to have sex with her in the ladies' room stall.

Leah had to roll her eyes when Paul explained his situation, begging her not to tell Rachel what had happened. She called him an idiot and told him to pick one of the "nice girls" he had already been with and start by making amends with them. He feared was that one of his exes would think he was trying to get back together, so she told him to be as honest as he could. It was then his turn to roll his eyes, sarcastically agreeing to reveal his wolf and imprint to an outsider. "No, moron," Leah had replied. "Find one of the nice girls, apologize for being a giant dick, and tell her that you're in love with a woman for the first time in your life and she won't give you the time of day until you get your act together. Then try to make friends. She'll probably just tell you to go fuck yourself. Which you will deserve, so it's okay."

Paul was mortified by this plan, but could come up with nothing better, and was instinctively bound to follow Rachel's directive. He had stewed on it for weeks. Leah got bored of listening to his inner debate, nicknamed him Oprah, and on a Thursday afternoon in October, she finally dragged him off to do it herself. She had pulled him to the same cafe where he had his unfortunate first date with Rachel, the same cafe that the entire pack avoided due to the tensions between two waitresses that Paul had slept with. They got lucky. The nicer one, Elle, was working that morning. So Leah had ordered them both sandwiches and pulled Elle into the booth next to her. As Paul hid his face in his hands, Leah had turned to Elle, saying, "Do you remember when he came in over the summer? He had a beautiful girl on his arm, and that other skanky waitress that was here hit on both of them?" Elle, of course, had not forgotten. It had been a memorable morning. Leah continued, "He's in love with that girl. But she doesn't buy it. Thinks he's still a player. He's trying to prove to her that his heart isn't just a lump of coal. He's trying to prove that he can treat a woman like an actual human being, only none of the women he knows will give him the time of day. So he's here to apologize and make nice."

"I don't understand," Elle had replied blankly.

"She told him to make friends with women, stay out of their pants, and grow up a little. Then maybe she'll take a second look at him."

"Wow," Elle answered. "Smart woman. Smarter than me. So is that what you're doing here? Did he apologize to you, and you agreed to help him out?"

Both Paul and Leah barked out sudden laughs. Leah wiped her eyes and answered, "God, no. Paul would lose his dick if he came near me with it. I'm here because I couldn't listen to his whining any more. I'm getting him started." She turns back to Paul. "Actually, I'm doing all the work by myself. Speak up, Paul."

Paul had lowered his hands from his face at some point, but was entirely unable to look Elle in the eye. Instead he focused on shredding his napkin into tiny little pieces. He mumbled under his breath in a sudden rush of words. "I'm really sorry I treated you so badly. You didn't deserve it."

Elle looked stunned and just blinked at him for several seconds as he blushed bright red. "Wow. I think I like this girl you brought with you, and the one you brought in here before."

Paul smiled for the first time as he thought of Rachel. "Me too."

Even Elle picked up on his softened, glazed expression. "Oh my God. He really is in love!"

Leah had chuckled, "You have no idea. He's a goner."

They had chosen correctly. Elle had chatted with them until she had to get up to take care of other customers. Leah had sent Paul back on each of the following Thursdays. He sat at the counter and talked with Elle when she had a free minute, and in between, bought and ate plenty of food to pacify the cafe's owner. He had learned about Elle's recent breakup, and he had talked rather endlessly about Rachel.

Bella's attention returns to the conversation at hand. Rachel pipes up, "Maybe we should keep Becca away from the non-imprinted wolves."

Sue nods thoughtfully. "Normally, I'd say that's unrealistic, but she lives so far out of state we might actually accomplish that. But what if Rebecca is really somebody's soulmate? Won't it be unfair to the wolf to keep him away from the person that completes him?"

Leah frowns. "Any guy worth anything won't be happy about ripping apart Rebecca's marriage, imprint or no."

The discussion is tabled when the house phone rings. "We're all pretty popular tonight, huh?" Sue chuckles as Bella answers the phone.

A silky smooth voice greets Bella. "Happy Thanksgiving, Bella."

Bella has to smile. No matter what else has happened, the person on the other end has only ever been good to her. "Carlisle! How are you? How is everyone?"

"Very well, my dear. The daylight hours here in Alaska are quite short this time of year, as you know, so we can go out quite a bit. Esme misses you, but the company of our friends is distracting."

"Have you heard from Rose and Emmett?"

"Yes, they are enjoying their excursion and lots of big game hunting. They are in Kenya now, I believe. They took Jacob's advice and have been experimenting with different types of makeup to blend in better. Her medical school applications are all in now, and she will probably be returning from time to time for interviews."

"Let her know to stop by if she's ever in the area," Bella answers. "How's Alice?"

"She misses you, of course. I'll put her on in a minute. Unfortunately, this isn't entirely a social call. Is Jacob available?"

Jacob had heard the conversation from the next room and was leaning against the wall next to the phone already. Mixed emotions cross his face. "Carlisle," he says simply. There is no malice in his tone. Not any longer. The doctor and Rosalie have both proven themselves to be trustworthy.

"Hello, Jacob. As you heard, this isn't entirely a social call. We've gotten a bit of strange news." Jacob frowns at Carlisle's choice of words. Strange doesn't mean bad, but it doesn't mean good either. "Felix, Jane, and Chelsea have still not returned to Italy. It is throwing Volterra into a state of disarray."

"Meaning what?" Jacob asks. He couldn't care less about the politics of the vampire world, but somehow it will probably create problems for LaPush.

"Jane, of course, is enforcement. Everyone is terrified her, and losing her would be a real blow. Just knowing she exists scares many vampires into submission. But Chelsea is the lynchpin that holds the Volturi guard together. Without her to influence the bonds between the guard and the leadership, it is unclear where true loyalties lie. Marcus himself would leave Aro and Caius if it weren't for Chelsea's influence. No one has defected from Volterra at this time, but the fact that they have still not returned is alarming. The Volturi have sent out scouts to look for them. I was not able to ascertain how many, but please be on the lookout. There is a piece of good news, though. Their last known location was Toronto, not Washington."

Bella can't hear the conversation, but Jacob's tense posture and expression concern her. And the other wolves have gathered and can hear everything Carlisle says. Seth fills her in.

"Okay. Thanks for the warning."

"I'll stay in touch with anything else I learn, Jacob. But there is one more thing. It was a good thing we came to Alaska when we did. You recall that Irina, one of the Denali coven, had a burgeoning relationship with Laurent?"

"The one we killed while you were gone?"

"Yes. It seems she is still quite bitter over the loss. She already knew about the existence of your pack; I have known them since I met your great grandfather, and had told them about you wolves long ago. She figured out that your pack killed him. I think I have managed to diffuse the situation, but she was in a black mood when we arrived."

"She wanted revenge on us," Jacob guesses.

"Yes, although she realized that without assistance she is little threat to you on her own. Her sister Tanya was rather emotional after learning of Edward's death, and we were worried that the two of them might stir up trouble. I believe I have managed to calm them somewhat, and we are keeping an eye on them ourselves. But I wanted you to be aware."

"Appreciate it," Jacob answers.

"Of course."

"What did you tell them happened to Edward?"

"We kept the same cover story that you showed to the Volturi, although we tried to give them as little detail as possible. But they think that Bella is dead, and that you are dead." Carlisle pauses, and Jacob hears a high pitched voice in the background. "I will keep you appraised if I learn anything else."

Without being asked, Jacob passes the phone to Bella. While she chats with Alice, he returns to the living room followed by Leah, Seth, and Paul. He explains the situation to Billy and Sue.

"I'd been hoping to slow down the patrols since we haven't come across any fresh trails. In addition to the extra long range patrols we're doing twice a week, several times a week I go on a spirit walk to look at the whole peninsula. I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. But I think we had better keep up the extra patrols., and maybe I should peek in on Alaska from time to time."

Charlie adds, "Not to mention the random vampires that come through. Bella's bruises are just now faded. I wonder how many open, unsolved murders in the Washington state system are from vampire attacks. Makes my job a whole lot damn harder."

"Don't let yourself get too wrapped into it, Charlie," Billy warns. "You're a great cop, but you're just not equipped to fight off this particular threat. They can't be arrested, and the justice system has no way to handle them."

Charlie just shakes his head. "I just can't believe I have to leave it to a bunch of teenagers to do the enforcement on this one. It's not right. All you guys exhausting yourselves to keep us all safe, and trying to get through high school at the same time."

"Well," Jacob answers, "There's a reason we don't patrol in human form. Much as I hate to admit it, if all I had was this body to fight with," gesturing to his form, "it's really not much of a contest against leeches. At least we have a way to defend ourselves. Everyone else is just helpless. We'll keep the schedule as it is, then. And if more of us can learn to spirit walk, it would help a lot."

Paul pipes up, "Jared and I are going to try going on a spirit quest over the long weekend. We're heading into the national park tonight and then split up, probably."

"Good luck," Billy wishes him well. "Make sure you're ready for school on Monday, though."

Seth adds, "Too bad Collin can't go. He seemed to have the best luck of all of us when we tried."

Billy chuckles. "Yes, well, I have to answer to my sister on that one, and she wasn't about to let him get out of Thanksgiving with her husband's family. Their house is being overrun with Littleseas. I think she just didn't want to face the in laws by herself!"  
Jacob looks at Leah apologetically. He had very much wanted to let her stop phasing as soon as possible. She stops him before he has a chance to speak. "It's okay, Jake. I don't think I'm ready to stop phasing anyway."

"But I know how important it is to you, Leah."

She shakes her head. "This is more important. Everybody's safety is more important. Plus, it's not like I'm stuck on the Rez. College is going well. And really, I don't think I could stop right now even if I wanted to. My body's just not ready."

"Okay, but how about we try pushing it back a little? You can phase less often, every couple weeks instead of every week. I can take the Friday shift."

"And miss school every other Friday? I don't think so. Let's aim for the summertime, huh? If it's safe to slow down."

Billy chimes in. "Listen to her, son. Junior year is important. Don't discount it. The rest of your life is still important. Not just your Alpha duties."

Jacob sighs, defeated. "Okay, but my Christmas present to you is no patrols over break. You and Sam both. You've been pulling more than your share of the weight. We're all off for vacation anyway. The rest of us will split your shifts."

Leah grins. "Deal. Now I just need a new car, and I'm all set." Jacob has already traded his Rabbit for Bella's truck to make sure Leah and Bella can get back and forth from Port Angeles daily in a timely fashion.

"Have you found anything yet?"

"No, been looking, though. There's a couple of prospects of used cars I've made some calls on. The insurance money should come in next month sometime."

"Want me to look at them with you over the weekend? I need to make a trip to Port Angeles soon to pick up a part for the Harley anyway." Leah agrees, and they make plans to check out some used cars over the next couple weeks.

Several minutes later, Bella, having gotten off the phone with an enthusiastic Alice, leans in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. Seth comes over and bumps her shoulder with his arm, giving her a warm smile. "Thanks for dinner, Bella. You're a great cook."

"So are your mom and sister. The stuff they brought was great. And I really can't take credit. Rachel and Jacob did a lot of the actual cooking this time around because of this," she points to her splinted ankle.

"How's it feel?"

She wiggles her toes experimentally. "Not bad. It'll be as good as new in a day or two. I've sprained it often enough to know what to expect."

He grins at her. "Too bad you can't phase just like us. You'd probably quit hurting yourself all the time, and even if you did, you'd heal pretty much instantaneously."

"Can't say that turning into a giant, hairy animal is something I ever wished for, but the coordination and the healing properties sure could come in handy."

Leah smirks at her. "Better than your original plan of becoming undead," she says low enough that Charlie doesn't hear. Bella has never discussed with him all the details about her relationship with Edward and hopes never to need to, although he has heard enough to start turning his hair gray.

Bella looks at the floor. "Good thing I came to my senses."

"We're all happy you did, Bella," Seth says with a warm, genuine smile. "It's great having you around so much. Leah is less of a harpy since she has someone other than the guys to talk to," he teases.

Leah retaliates with a slap upside Seth's head. He just laughs in response. "Hey. I'm not a harpy."

Paul can't resist. "Nah, you're just a bitch."

He ducks her attempt to smack him too, but in the attempt lowers himself into easy range of her knee. She gets him in the gut, but rather than fighting back they both just snicker.

The evening passes. Sue redirects everyone's attention to Billy and Charlie. They are seated side by side, Charlie in his trusty recliner, Billy in his well-worn wheelchair. Both men have fallen asleep in front of the television, inadvertently slouching slowly together such that their shoulders and heads actually rest against each other.

They can't resist. Sue, Rachel, and Bella all pull out their cameras and phones to take pictures of the pair. Somehow, the gentle laughter in the room doesn't wake either of them from their tryptophan comas.

The fathers' fatigue is contagious. Soon everyone is yawning. Rachel and Paul pack up what few leftovers remain and distribute them while Jacob helps his father into the car. Rachel even gets Paul to do the dishes before they leave. Bella retrieves a blanket for Charlie. He will be comfortable enough in his recliner for the night. She gets hugs from each of the Clearwaters before Jacob returns to say goodnight. He tucks her hair behind her ear and gives her a gentle kiss.

"Take care of that ankle, okay, honey?"

"Sure you can't come by tonight?" Bella asks plaintively. Between her school and shifts at Newtons, his school, patrols, the Harley restoration, and the extra work he has picked up doing car repairs in his garage, they haven't spent nearly as much time together as either wants. Happily, they still see each other in their dreams even when their bodies are apart. But nothing is quite like spending the night in each other's arms.

He looks at her softly. "I can't stay and sleep with you like I really want to. Gotta burn off some of those calories on patrol." He pats his belly contentedly. "But if you leave your window unlocked I'll say goodnight."

"Good," she smiles. "It's hard to fall asleep without you next to me when I know you're not even going to be joining me in our dreams."

He rests his forehead against hers. "I know what you mean. And tonight would be a perfect night to spend together. Charlie's going to sleep like the dead after all that food. But I couldn't ask someone else to take the holiday shift."

"It was nice of Embry to offer to cover during the day," Bella answers.

"Yeah. I'd better get going and relieve him. There's still time for him to have a late dinner with his mom. I'll stop by tonight, okay?"

After kissing her goodbye, Jacob grins at her over his shoulder as he jogs to the car. Bella calls Renee to wish her a happy holiday. After hanging up the phone, she shudders a bit to think of what she had originally planned for this day. She might have managed a phone call to Renee, and one to Charlie. But there would have been no lovely meal aside from raw animal blood, a thought that continues to disgust her. Instead of being surrounded by the warmth of those who love her most, she would have been isolated in Alaska with only a few hours of daylight and no one to warm her cold skin, trying desperately to resist her ravenous newborn appetite for murder. She would have missed Seth's smile, Leah's humor, Rachel's good spirit, Paul's jokes, and her father's happiness. And worst of all, she would have missed out on Jacob's encompassing love, both depriving herself of her spirit's mate and breaking his heart. She would have had the Cullens, of course, but she has them anyway, aside from Edward's destructive obsession. And today she even got talk to both Alice and Carlisle, although she wishes they had less worrisome news.

Bella lies in bed for hours waiting for Jacob. He doesn't come to kiss her goodnight like he promised, and she worries as she stares at the ceiling. She tosses and turns until she falls into a fitful sleep.

X-x-x-x-X

Jacob drops Rachel and Billy off at home before jogging into the woods and phasing. The forest is damp with a cold, drizzling rain, and Embry is grateful to get home to the hot meal his mother has waiting for him. Paul and Jared have already phased in and set off to the east. They plan to run deep into the Olympic National Forest in wolf form before isolating themselves in the wilderness in human form and searching for their spirit guides. Seth phases in a few minutes later. Jacob keeps Seth patrolling the border of the reservation while he takes a wider loop around Forks.

Jacob is about to drop in on Bella when Jared and Paul come across a fresh vampire trail. They are only about ten miles into the National Park when the stench overwhelms them.

_Shit, so much for a nice relaxing camping trip for the holiday, _Jared quips.

Paul answers, _No man, I'm still hungry. Didn't eat enough at dinner. I'd love me some leech for dessert. _

Jacob starts sprinting toward the park. _Seth, send out a signal. Anyone who's still on the Rez should be able to hear you, and start heading east.  
_

Seth lets out an earsplitting howl of warning. His sister appears in the pack mind almost immediately. Embry and Collin arrive moments later. Jacob issues instructions. _Embry, Collin, stay and guard the reservation. Seth and Leah, head our way.  
_

Jared and Paul race between trees and along the southern edge of an easterly running river. _This thing isn't making any attempt to hide itself, Jake, _Paul states.

_Either it doesn't know anything about us, or it's a trap. Be careful. Do you smell anything else?_

_Nothing,_ Paul and Jared agree. So far they have only smelled one vampire. The trail follows the path of the river, which eventually forks into smaller creeks. The trail continues east, and they sprint along it. Jacob gains ground, and behind him, Leah starts to catch up as well. Seth, Embry, and Collin follow behind. While they run, Jacob fills in Embry, Collin, and Jared on the news from Dr. Cullen.

_Be cautious. We don't know if this is just some random nomad or a Volturi scout. If it's the latter, it's probably not alone, and might have some freaky power._

About twenty minutes later, Jared catches sight of the vampire. It is still about 500 feet away and is on the far side of the creek. The wolves are in luck. They are downwind from the leech, and it does not appear to have spotted them yet.

_Follow it, watch closely, try not to get it get a glimpse of you, _Jacob says.

_Screw that, I want to rip into that thing! _Paul growls in the pack mind.

_I don't doubt that you and Jared could handle one lone leech, but we don't know if that thing has any powers. Watch it and see if it does anything to give itself away. _

Paul acquiesces silently. He and Jared stalk the creature for several minutes. It is male, tall, although difficult to tell exactly how much at this distance, about as well muscled as any pack member in human form, and has stringy dirty blonde hair. It is dressed in hunter's gear and dark glasses despite the cloudy, rainy night. It appears intent on its course, following the creek's path without deviation.

Before Jacob catches up with them, the vampire starts to look over its shoulder. As quiet as the wolves are, there is no way to be completely silent, particularly to a vampire with heightened senses. It does not catch sight of them, they can tell, but it knows it is being followed. It takes to the trees, leaping quickly from branch to branch.

_Shit_, Paul mutters.

Jacob pushes himself toward them, paws pounding the dirt. _Go. Fast as you can._

_We won't let it get away,_ Jared says firmly. And they give chase.

The vampire is fast. But it probably made a mistake jumping into the trees. Instead of being to able to sprint at its maximum speed, it has to pick branches strong enough to hold its considerable height. It probably hopes that it will be less visible where it is, but the wolves do not rely on sight alone. Each tree shakes upon landing, and there is no way to mask the sound, subtle though it is.

Paul catches up with it first. Rather than leaping to the next tree, it begins to ascend, working its way further out of reach. Paul snarls and stands on his hind legs, front claws digging into the tough bark. Jared is right on his heels and positions himself under the next tree over. Paul asks, _What now, Jake? I can phase back and climb up there with him, knock him down so Jared can get at him, then jump down and help._

_It's not doing anything, right? I see it just staring down at you. No need to show all our cards yet. I'm almost there. But if it makes a move, take it down. Leah, how far are you?_

_Five minutes behind you, Jake. _

__The vampire hisses at them from its tenuous perch in the tree. Paul growls back at it. The vampire slowly reaches for its sunglasses and pulls them away from its face, dropping them onto the ground. It comes as no surprise that its eyes are crimson red. Before Jacob can arrive, the vampire drops out of the tree and straight onto Paul.

Paul is ready, and he leaps out of the way just in time. The vampire swipes at Paul's unprotected side, but Jared slams into it until before it can do more than strike an annoying blow. It careens off the tree and lands several feet away, bracing itself against a sturdy oak. Paul leaps straight at it, but it throws its arms out, aiming to crush Paul's trachea. The vampire's reach prevents Paul from ripping off its head like he wants, but he manages to take a small chunk out of its upper arm. The thing screams in rage and barely manages to shove Paul off it with a kick of its legs against his chest.

Paul isn't back far enough for Jared to get close since the vampire has its back to the oak. Jared paces just to the right of the vampire, ready to pounce as soon as he has room. Instead of facing Jared, the vampire pushes itself off the oak and into Paul. Paul rolls neatly onto his back, all four limbs between his torso and the leech, and flings it behind him. The vampire tumbles into the creek. It flips itself hastily out onto the opposite bank, gaze flicking rapidly between the two wolves and potential routes of escape.

Jacob chooses that moment to step out from the trees, directly behind the startled vampire. He is in his human form. "What are you doing here?" Jacob asks the vampire.

Jared and Paul advance on the vampire. It turns to the side in an attempt to see all of them at once, a feat only accomplished by whipping its head back and forth between them. "Call off your dogs!" it yells to Jacob.

Jacob smirks. "And why would I do that?"

"Just call them off!"

Jacob grins darkly, "Then tell me what you're doing here. Otherwise they attack." Paul and Jared both growl low in their throats, bearing their teeth.

There is panic in the vampire's eyes. Jacob sees what it will do moments before it happens and tenses in preparation. The vampire flies at him, but Jacob holds his ground. Jared leaps at the same moment the vampire does, sinking his jaw deep into the vampire's thigh at the same moment the leech slams into Jacob. The force of the blow knocks Jacob into a boulder behind him. It is the sort of movement that would break bones in a lesser man.

Jacob rises easily as the vampire struggles against Jared's iron grip. Paul moves over it and pins its arms before it can strike Jared, face pushed into the ground. Jacob strolls over and squats so he can look it in the eye. "So. Do you want to keep both of your legs? I've found with some trial and error that you things seem to value all your body parts. It's a fact that comes in handy sometimes."

The vampire spits venom at Jacob, but he moves aside easily before it can hit him. "Okay, have it your way." Jacob pulls a lighter out of his pocket. "It's a bit damp here to light the sort of fire we normally like for such occasions." He holds his other hand above the lighter to shelter it from the rain and triggers the flame. "But this still works. Your venom is rather flammable, isn't it? Do you think you'll burn if I just set this here?" Jared releases the vampire's leg from his teeth, but keeps the thing pinned down by his paws. Jacob holds the lighter an inch from the gaping wound. "I don't know, but I'd like to find out."

"Fuck you," the leech hisses.

"Hm," Jacob stands thoughtfully and drops the lighter as Jared releases the affected leg entirely. The vampire's leg starts blazing instantaneously, and it begins to scream. Paul leans forward to pin the thrashing monster more firmly. Jacob grabs the vampire's foot and yanks down firmly, and it breaks off at the injured, flaming point. He signals to Paul with his head, and the wolves toss the vampire into the creek so that its stump can stop burning. Jacob holds the leg up by the foot like some kind of ridiculous torch. The injured vampire tries to scramble up the opposite bank, but Jared and Paul leap across and easily pin it down before it can get anywhere. Jacob shoves the burning limb at the vampire and says, "Shall we try again?"

Defeated, the vampire lies flat on the ground, panting, and says, "There isn't any point. You killed her, didn't you, so I have no reason to live."

Jacob narrows his eyes and puts out the flames in the creek. "Which one? I've killed lots of leeches in my time."

The vampire shuts its eyes. "I told her not to come this way. Vampires come here, to this Peninsula, and never come back." Jacob moves to Paul and slips another lighter out of the shorts tied around Paul's ankle as the vampire looks on, bewildered. "Why the fuck do your dogs have pants tied around their ankles?"

Jacob lets out a genuine guffaw. "Good question. Too bad you're not in any position to demand answers. Do I need to ask again? Who did you come here looking for?"

The vampire struggles in futility against Jared and Paul and lets out a frustrated growl. Finally it answers, "Christine. My mate. She disappeared a month ago. I know she came through here, so I wanted to look."

Jacob narrows his eyes. "You're right. You should never have come this way, either of you."

"She thought you were a just a story. That you couldn't be real."

Jacob squats by its head again and tilts his head. "I like stories, and I'm a bit of an egotist. Tell me the story about who I am."

The vampire looks between Jacob and the two wolves. He breathes out, "You're the shaman. You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

Jacob settles into a casual position seated on the ground. "Yes, I am. But how I kill you, well, that's up to you. Tell me everything you know about me and tell me who told you about me, and I won't rip off any other limbs before you die. I won't set you on fire until after you're dead."

The vampire claims that it belongs to no coven, but travelled with its mate. They had heard rumors of a dangerous Indian shaman somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, but stories varied wildly. Some claimed he was alive but ancient, others claimed he was some sort of ghost, and still others said he was dead. The vampire claimed to know no more. His mate had wanted to eat humans who were stalking the forests for deer, appreciating the irony of hunting hunters. She had gone ahead, as he had come across a teenage runaway that he wanted to enjoy. He goes on to describe in lurid detail his days-long torture and rape of the girl before he drained her.

Paul loses his temper listening to the sickening story. The unrepentant lust in the vampire's voice drives him over the edge, and with an enraged howl Paul rips off its remaining leg. Jacob, too, sees red and phases, shredding his pants. Together the wolves tear the leech to bits, just in time for Leah to arrive to set the pieces on fire.

They watch it burn with satisfaction.

Without real regret in his tone, Paul says, _Sorry about the timing there. You weren't done interrogating it, I know._

_Doesn't matter,_Jacob answers. _We had no way to know if the thing was lying, and all the time in the world wasn't going to change that. We'll never know if it was really alone, not unless another leech comes looking for it. _

_Let's just hope it wasn't really Volturi,_Leah says, gazing at the burning pile.

Jacob answers soberly, _Only time will tell.  
_

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks as always to my beta, Babs 81410, at JBNP.


	7. Chapter 6

X-x-x-x-X  
December  
X-x-x-x-X

The Christmas season follows quickly on the heels of Thanksgiving. No other vampires cross the boundaries of the wolves' patrols, although they were able to confirm at least part of the story told by the male vampire they killed. After burning it to ash, Jacob and the pack had scoured the area for scents and had tracked their kill back to an old, collapsing barn on the outskirts of Port Townsend. In the surrounding grounds, Leah recognized the scent of the female vampire she and Bella had killed. Jacob found the burned remains of a body hidden in the old cellar beneath the barn. He made an anonymous phone call to the local police from a carefully selected pay phone to report the finding before heading home, as the trail had dead ended there. The vampires must have used a car for part of their journey.

By the time he returned, morning had risen, and the next day had begun. Jacob had actually stopped in the Forks Police Station before going to see Bella. He had closed the door to Charlie's office and slumped down in the chair facing the Chief of Police. He had started intently at the ugly industrial carpeting covering the office floor and quietly asked the older man, "How do you do it? How do you do this job?"

Charlie was startled, but he recognized the same haunted look on Jacob's face that he had seen on his younger deputies. "Tell me what happened, son."

Hunched over in the small chair and twisting his large hands together, Jacob retold as much of the vampire's story as he could stomach. Then he stumbled through a description of what he had found in the abandoned barn. Charlie leaned forward, listening to his best friend's sixteen year old son describe something that would haunt a seasoned veteran.

Charlie sighed. Jacob should have been worrying about how to get into college and how to impress girls. Instead he had become not only the judge, jury, and executioner for the world's most vile monsters, he was the detective and the police force as well. "You do it because it needs to be done. And you hope you make a difference somewhere along the way. And in your case, you do it because literally no one else can do what you do." Jacob had nodded and slumped his shoulders further. "I don't envy you, son," Charlie had continued. "But you remember what you've done, Jacob. We always tell ourselves when we see criminals like this, the worst of the worst, the scum of the planet, that if we can catch them, even if we couldn't save the ones who were already lost, there are probably a few people who would have died, somewhere down the line, if they weren't stopped. But you? You and your brothers? By destroying just those two monsters, immortal psychopaths who prey on humans, you've saved not one, not a handful, but probably a hundred or more human beings. Remember that, okay?"

Jacob had felt slightly better and gone from the station to Bella's house. She was still asleep, so he took nearly half an hour in the shower scrubbing the scent of leech, dirt, sweat, and worst of all, burnt human flesh from his own skin. Still damp, he crawled into bed behind Bella, spooning her and tucking her into his large form. She awoke as soon as she felt his arms snaking around her body.

"Jake? I was worried. Are you okay?" She had just managed to fall into a light, anxious slumber the night before when she was jolted to consciousness by a sharp, stabbing pain in her back. She looked out her window, saw no wolves near her home, and even called out softly to see if anyone was there patrolling. There was no response. Terrified, she had lain in bed awaiting some word of what happened, but none came. She felt her own pulse and found that it raced wildly in her chest. The throbbing gradually subsided, and within an hour the pain was gone. By then the hour was late, and she eventually dozed off again.

"Yeah. Everyone's fine," he replied softly. "We found the mate of the vamp you and Leah killed last month. I'm sorry I couldn't come by like I said I would. We had to take it down."

"You got hurt," she whispered.

Jacob leaned back enough to slip his hands across her back, gently rubbing along her spine. "Oh, sweetheart. I'm so sorry you had to feel that. Are you okay?"

She rolled toward him in surprise. "Am I okay? Jacob, are you okay?"

He tried to smile reassuringly at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Of course, you know me. Super fast healing, one of the perks. How bad was it for you?"

"Not that bad. Gone after about an hour. I've done way worse to myself," she answered.

"Thank goodness," he sighed. "Sorry I was gone so long. We followed it back to the beginning of the trail. The one you and Leah killed had been with it at one point. The scent was degraded and faint, but it was there. No other leech trails came near it, so hopefully they were just on their own."

He obviously didn't want to talk more, so she shushed him, snuggled herself into his chest and ran her fingers up and down his bare flank until he fell asleep.

After that, their patrols are uneventful. The holidays arrive with welcome visitors. Rachel proctors her last undergraduate exam in a happy, distracted daze just two hours before she has to go pick up Rebecca at Sea-Tac. The two sisters collide in a squealing mass in baggage claim as an amused Solomon looks on. Rebecca drags Rachel over to meet her husband. He is as tall as Paul and even broader in the chest, but Rachel can tell that in a few years, his now athletic physique will have shifted into something much softer, unlike her Paul.

Solomon loads their luggage into the car and kindly stuffs himself into the small backseat to allow Rebecca and Rachel to sit side by side on the way home.

"Dad hasn't said so, but I can tell he's beside himself with excitement that you're coming home, Becks," Rachel says as she steers onto the freeway.

"So you spend a lot of time there, huh?" Rebecca answers.

Rachel nods. "About twice a month, maybe?"

"How's Jake?"

Rachel smiles. "You're not even going to recognize him. He's doing great."

Rebecca shakes her head. "You keep saying that. He's growing up, huh?"

"Got a girlfriend and everything."

Rebecca scoffs. "I'll believe it when I see it. Skinny, goofy little Jakey with Bella Swan? She's almost our age, isn't she?"

"Nineteen. But they're a great match. It's kind of sickening, actually," Rachel laughs.

"I remember how he used to follow her around. But what on earth could make a girl like that fall for a kid so much younger than her?"

"He's not quite like you remember him, Becks. He grew up a lot. Real fast. You're not going to believe it's him when you see him."

"You guys are pretty close?"

Rachel smiles a little and replies, "Now we are."

Rebecca looks out the window at the hazy skies above. So different from Hawaii. She isn't sure any longer which feels more like home. "I'm glad Jake and Dad aren't all on their own all the time," she says quietly.

They spend the rest of the ride catching up on reservation gossip. Rebecca is particularly fascinated by what little Rachel can tell her about Leah, Sam, and Emily. "I really thought those two would end up together!" Rebecca says in surprise.

"So did she," Rachel answers. After a pause, she adds, "So did he."

"I think I met Emily, oh, maybe once. I really don't remember her. But what a bitch! Of all the guys in the world, keep your hands off your best friend's fiance."

Rachel snorts. She can't decide if she agrees or not. Emily has been nothing but kind to her, and Leah seems to be doing okay on her own now. But she is in Emily's position right now, and she hasn't given in to Paul's advances. So far he hasn't exactly suffered dire consequences from it. She hasn't spoken with anyone about it, but she wonders if her nebulous relationship with Paul has given either Sam or Emily any second thoughts about their own.

"Which reminds me, by the way," Rebecca continues, "Keep your hands off Solomon. He's mine."

Rachel laughs in response and glances in the rearview mirror. Solomon has fallen asleep and is snoring softly in the backseat. "Good to know. And here I was, just sitting around thinking that I could use another man to juggle."

Rebecca lowers her voice conspiratorially. "Yeah, tell me more about these guys."

"Well," Rachel sighs, "Trevor's great. He went to see family for the holiday, so you won't get to meet him, unfortunately."

"He sounds amazing. Do you have a picture?"

Rachel digs her phone out of her pocket. "Look in the contacts. His photo's there."

"Oooh. You told me he was good looking. You didn't tell me he's a dead ringer for a young Taye Diggs, sis. He looks like he belongs on the cover of GQ."

Rachel looks startled. "Huh. He does sort of look like that, doesn't he?"

"You said he's smart, yeah?"

"Uh huh, and funny, too."

"And he treats you well."

"He does. He really does."

"And he's as sexy as hell. There's no way that that little punk Paul Lahote is competition for this guy," Rebecca responds, waving around the phone displaying Trevor's picture.

"Well, my Paul, he isn't so little anymore. But he isn't competition, exactly. I'm not seeing him like that."

Rebecca scoffs. "Right. Every time I get you on the phone, Paul is either in your apartment, you're on your way to see him, or you just saw him. You talk about him all the time, and you just called him 'my Paul'."

Rachel startles. "I did?"

"You absolutely did. I want to see a picture of him. Where do I find it?" She pulls up the album on Rachel's phone.

"I don't have a picture of him. But he'll probably be at the house when we get there."

"See?" Rebecca sounds smug. "You guys are always together. You talk about him all the damn time. You're cheating on your boyfriend and you don't even know it."

"I'm not cheating on Trevor!" Rachel protests. "He knows I'm friends with Paul, and I've never kissed Paul, let alone slept with him. And he's seeing someone else anyway."

"When did this happen?"

"I don't know, recently. I told him to!" Rachel ignores the slight twisting sensation in her gut from thinking about Paul and Elle.

"Why did you do that?" Rebecca asks.

Rachel has no idea how to answer this question without addressing all the things she cannot tell Rebecca. It makes her a little sick to have to hide so many things from Rebecca, but her twin sister is better off not knowing. "It's not fair to him to sit around waiting for me just because I'm with someone else. I don't want that for him."

"See, that sounds so weird. He wants you, and you know it?"

"Well, yeah," Rachel answers tentatively.

"But you don't want him back that way?"

"I don't know, Becks. I'm with someone else, and Trevor is great."

"That doesn't answer my question," Rebecca challenges. "Do you, or do you not, want him?" Rachel just lets the question hang in the air. Rebecca nods. "So you do want him. But you aren't seeing him, and you told him to see other people, but you're still letting him hang around all the time? It's probably kinder to cut him loose than string him along."

"It's not like that. I never said I want him," Rachel protests. "He's really good friends with Jake. I can't ask Jacob to dump his friend because I have some weird sexual tension with the guy." This isn't strictly true, but she can't think of any other way to describe the pack relationship. But her sister's instruction to let Paul go sticks with her. Would that be more kind?

"So why is he always coming to stay in your apartment in Seattle?"

Rachel can't think of a proper answer to this either. She can't exactly tell her sister that Paul gets chest pain when he is out of her presence for too long. "He misses me. And I miss him. But not like that. We're not together. We're friends."

Rebecca just rolls her eyes. "Right. Just friends." She clearly doesn't believe it for a second. Thankfully, she drops the subject for the remainder of the ride home. But Rachel can't stop thinking about her sister's questions. Does she want Paul that way? The train of thought distracts her from worrying about whether one of the other wolves will imprint on Rebecca during her visit.

As they cross the border onto the reservation, Rachel can see her sister tensing visibly. Her back straightens unconsciously, and she starts to grip her seat with her hands. Solomon wakes up spontaneously just when his wife needs him most. Rachel smiles when, out of the corner of her eye, she sees him reach around the seat to rub Rebecca's shoulders. She doesn't know Solomon very well yet, but he seems to make her twin sister very happy, so he can't be a bad guy.

"It hasn't changed a bit," Rebecca breathes as they pass by familiar modest houses and the Ateara's general store. She sounds a bit choked up.

"Maybe never will," Rachel answers.

Rebecca shifts unconsciously in her seat and grips her husband's hand over her shoulder. "I don't know if I can do this," she says quietly.

"We're right here with you," Rachel reassures her. "Just focus on Jake and Dad."

"That's even worse. They have to be so mad at me," Rebecca sounds miserable.

"Mad at you? Why would they be mad? They're not. I swear."

"We abandoned them, Rach," Rebecca breathes. "He was just a kid, and we left him here to take care of our invalid father all by himself."

"Dad's not an invalid," Rachel corrects her gently. "And Jake's not a kid. They take care of each other, and they're really good at it."

"They're not upset with me?"

"They're not. I wouldn't lie to you, Becks. You'd see through any lie I told you before I even finished saying it."

"It's not my fault you're such a terrible liar," Rebecca teases. Then she sighs, "I miss them."

Rachel smiles. "They miss you too. And they'll be really, really happy to see you."

A few minutes later, they pull up the drive. "Exactly the same," Rebecca murmurs. The front door opens, and Rebecca freezes when she sees the movement, her hand on the door.

"It's just Paul," Rachel reassures her and steps out. Paul grins widely when he sees her and runs forward for a hug. Rebecca watches in fascination as Paul sweeps up her twin sister in his arms. The blissful expression on his face tells her everything she wants to know.

She whispers to Solomon, "Just friends? Yeah, right," not realizing Paul can hear every word. "He's got it bad."

Paul would find this more amusing if it wasn't so very true. If only she felt the same. But she is back in his arms, at least for now, and he is so grateful that she lets him hold her this way now. For a few wonderful seconds, everything feels right with the world. Then Rebecca and Solomon open their doors and climb out, and Rachel squirms to be let down. Paul wishes they were at the point in their relationship where he could just refuse to put her down, but they aren't. So he gently releases her, and he waves her sister over.

Rebecca sticks out her hand. "So you're the notorious Paul, huh?"

The old Paul would have taken this opportunity to hit on Rebecca, husband standing behind her or no. He would have flashed her his lascivious grin and suggested that everything she had heard about him is entirely true. But the new Paul realizes this would be the quickest possible way to destroy any progress he has made with Rachel, so just shakes her hand, smiles, and says, "That's me. It's been a long time. Congratulations on getting married," and then shakes Solomon's hand as well. Rebecca's husband has a pretty good grip. For a human, at least. They exchange greetings before Rebecca notices movement out of the corner of her eye and freezes with a look of surprise on her face.

And then Jacob bounds toward them from his garage, wiping his greasy hands on an old cloth that he tosses to the ground, and sweeps his sister up, spinning her around and around with a booming laugh and a huge smile on his face.

"Who are you?" Rebecca laughs.

"Becks! It's so good to see you!" Jacob still won't put her down.

"It's nice to meet you, you giant freak. Did you eat my baby brother?" she asks.

He finally places her on her feet, keeping his arm slung over her shoulders, and reaches out with his other hand to pump Solomon's hand. "Hi, Solomon. Great to finally meet you. Come on and meet my dad." He turns and leads them up the porch where Billy awaits. Rebecca slides down and kneels in front of their father. Everyone politely ignores the tears shining in her eyes and in Billy's. Neither parent nor child say anything. Rebecca just leans forward to lie her head in his lap and squeeze him tightly around his middle. Billy squeezes his eyes shut with a funny little smile on his face and wraps himself around his wayward daughter.

Jacob turns to Solomon in an attempt to let Rachel and Billy have their moment, making small talk about the long flight and drive from Seattle. He would lead them inside, but Billy and Rebecca block the doorway. About a minute later, Rebecca rises, subtly wipes at her eyes with her fingers, and asks Billy what he has done to Jacob to make him grow so huge.

"I mix bovine growth hormone into his breakfast cereal!" Billy answers cheekily.

The family crowds into the small living room as Paul and Solomon bring the luggage inside. Rachel carefully examines her sister as she jokes with Jacob and Billy. Her sister smiles unconsciously every time she glances at her husband, and Solomon can hardly tear his eyes away from Rebecca. She allows herself to breathe a sigh of relief. She had been genuinely nervous that Paul would imprint on her twin sister the very second he saw her since they share the same genes. She knows the thought was absurd, but just about everything she knows about imprinting seems absurd.

After placing the bags in Jacob's bedroom, Paul lowers himself to the wide arm of the recliner where Rachel sits. His hand opens and closes on his lap in a nervous, unconscious gesture. By now, Rachel knows what this means. He wants to touch her while simultaneously wanting to respect her boundaries. She compromises by placing a hand on his knee, and his whole body stills. This is the kind of thing she would never do in front of Trevor. She wonders if that makes it wrong.

She has managed to keep them apart so far. She had thought that Trevor would be bothered by all her weekends being taken up by Paul, but as it turned out, he works every weekend pulling twelve hour shifts as an EMT, so he really doesn't notice that she isn't available on any normal date nights. He also has a day job as a clerk in a publishing firm, but his entry level job doesn't pay well enough to cover his expenses. He trained as an EMT to put himself through college, and now is trying to pay his younger sister's tuition as well. Their parents had died in a car accident six years before, common ground over which Rachel and Trevor are sad to bond over. So all in all, his busy schedule means that he barely has time for a social life. Despite that, he makes a standing dinner date to see Rachel at least twice a week on weekdays, and they often meet for lunch as well.

Paul knows well enough not to ask about the other man. He realizes that Rachel will tell him if they ever break it off, and anything other than that, he simply doesn't want to know. In turn, he himself has obeyed her wishes and continues to see Elle regularly. He wouldn't call it dating exactly; he spends too much of his time talking about Rachel to Elle. But he is managing to do what Rachel has asked of him. He has actually made friends with a woman. Elle, in turn, has found him to be good company. And he buys so much food in her cafe that her manager can't be upset that he comes and monopolizes so much of Elle's time. They have even let on to her jerk of an ex-boyfriend that Paul is her new flame, a ruse that satisfies both of them.

Rachel is genuinely pleased with him. His overt gestures of interest toward her have curbed. The entire pack agrees that his temper has been better and his mood generally lighter. He has focused more in school, and even his teachers have noticed the difference. Whatever else has or has not occurred as part of their imprint, Rachel Black has been a good influence for Paul Lahote.

So when she places her hand on his knee, she also flashes him a warm smile, and for the moment, they are both content.

The family spends the next hour catching up as best as they can. It saddens Rachel not to be able to tell her twin absolutely everything, but Rebecca is much safer this way.

An hour after Rachel brings Rebecca home, Jacob leaves on Mr. Harrison's now restored Harley to return it to him just in time for Christmas, and returns with Bella and Charlie bearing dinner. Rebecca watches Bella and Jacob interact, and she can't quite believe that this is her baby brother. Not only is he huge and heavily muscled, not only has his face lost all traces of its baby fat, not only does he look older than she does, but he obviously has Bella Swan head over heels for him. The only reason she can get away with staring at the pair without being noticed is that they can hardly take their eyes off one another. They trade glances, soft smiles, and as many touches as they can get away with. They look deliriously happy.

As the family sits down to eat, Rebecca leans over to her sister and mutters, "I can't believe it. They're, like, stupid in love."

Paul snorts, "And he's getting dumber by the minute."

Everyone laughs, and Solomon takes his wife's hand and kisses her knuckles, looking at her with a twinkle in his eye, and says, "Your brother sort of reminds me of me."

Over dinner Charlie interrogates Solomon like the police officer that he is. Bella glances back and forth between her father and Billy, who breaks in occasionally telling Charlie to lay off the young man in an exaggerated fashion. She realizes that the entire thing was probably planned from the outset; Charlie gets to be bad cop, Billy gets to be good cop, and Billy still gets to learn all kinds of information about his son-in-law. Solomon handles the questioning with good humor, and by the end of the evening Billy stops Charlie by wheeling himself behind the young couple and drawing his index finger across his neck. Abruptly, Charlie leans back with a genuine smile, and on his way back, Billy shakes Solomon's hand heartily and welcomes him to the family with the best blessing he can think of, "You're good for Rebecca, and I'm glad you found one another."

Solomon just smiles widely while Rebecca throws her arms around her father's neck in a tight hug and a quiet, "Thanks, daddy. I've missed you."

He smiles gently into her hair and hugs her back. "Me too, but I'm just glad you're happy."

X-x-x-x-X

Later that night, just before Charlie leaves for a night shift at the station, Jacob pushes Rebecca's old twin bed, previously stored in the basement, into his own bedroom and against the small bed against the wall in order to make a bed large enough for Solomon and Rebecca to sleep together.

"This was in the basement the whole time?" asks Paul.

"Yep," Jacob answers shortly.

"Why didn't you push these together before? Just feel like squishing yourself onto as small a space as possible to sleep?"

"Because I'm an idiot," Jacob growls.

Rebecca lingers in the doorway. "You don't need to give up your bedroom, Jake."

"It's no problem," he answers. "I'm fine on the couch. I can sleep anywhere. Like, literally anywhere."

Paul mumbles, "Like Bella's bed."

Jacob hushes him, "Shut up, man. Charlie will hear you." But thankfully, whether it is due to his excessively heavy sleeping or to willful ignorance, Charlie Swan has not noticed Jacob crawling through his daughter's window every night. Billy, on the other hand, makes certain to make Jacob as uncomfortable as possible at completely random moments by loudly reminding him not to impregnate Bella Swan. Sometimes they are alone when this happens, but Billy prefers as many pack members to be present as possible for maximum effect. Finally, in front of Brady, Collin, and Seth, no less, Jacob yelled back in frustration that Bella is on birth control. Nonplussed, Billy continues his parenting advice whenever he feels like it. It doesn't stop Jacob from sneaking out of his house and into hers.

That night when Jacob enters, he goes through the front door. They plan on taking full advantage of the fact that Charlie is out of the house until morning. Bella waits for him in her bedroom with an early Christmas present. She feels a little bit sexy and a lot embarrassed wearing a crimson red silk slip and matching thong under her red satin robe.

When Leah had said she needed to pick up some new clothes on their way home after their last final exams, Bella hadn't thought twice before consenting, nor had she protested when Leah pulled her new (old) Civic into the mall's parking lot. Jacob had helped her find the well-maintained used vehicle and then employed his size and intimidating presence to ensure she got a good price, although Leah's sharp tongue did most of the bargaining. Leah was happy to have transportation again, and Bella had returned Jacob's Rabbit and taken back her beloved truck.

Once inside the mall, Bella trailed along agreeably. But she immediately regretted it when Leah bypassed Macy's and Sears and headed straight into Victoria's Secret.

"Nuh uh, I'm not going in there with you," Bella protested.

Leah cocked an eyebrow at her. "What, do you think you'll trip into a rack of bras and get so tangled that they strangle you? I wouldn't put it past you, Swan, but I'll untangle you before you asphyxiate."

Bella eyed Leah, "You thought that one up ahead of time, didn't you, and were just waiting to use it on me."

Leah laughed, "No, I don't sit around thinking of new ways to make fun of you. You make it too easy; there's no forethought required. But that sounded like a challenge, so maybe I will now. Get in here." She pulled Bella along with a firm grip. "I'm sick of tattered dresses that get covered in dirt from patrol. I need something girly."

Bella smiled as she got tugged along. "Were you starting to think you're a boy?"

Leah smirked. "I forget when I'm around the pack too much, but Brad helped remind me last weekend."

"I thought you guys went to a Muse concert in Seattle."

"We did."

"Did you guys go back to his place afterward?"

Leah looked sidelong at Bella as she flips through a rack of teddies. "Nope. I don't get these. They somehow manage to be slutty looking while simultaneously covering up the parts you want to expose."

"Your mom's house?" Bella follows Leah to a display of slips.

"Nope," Leah shook her head and pulled out short black satin, holding it up to her body. "And nope." She handed it to Bella, who accepted it without paying any attention.

Bella narrowed her eyes at Leah. "His car?"

Leah handed two more pieces to Bella. "Nuh uh. Key Arena during the concert. Twice."

Bella smacked Leah lightly with her free hand. "You did not."

Leah strutted over to a wall covered in corsets, glancing over her shoulder at Bella with a wicked grin. "Look who's talking miss-on-the-porch-in-broad-daylight. Also twice. Anyway, let's just say I don't miss Sam so much any more."

"Leah!" Bella giggled. "Wait, he wasn't your first since Sam, was he?"

Leah's face fell a little. "Second. The other wasn't worth mentioning." She flicked through the rack and picked out a few things to try.

"But now that you've mentioned it already, you have to explain," Bella prodded. A few months ago, she never would have asked such a question. But then again, a few months ago, she wasn't friends with Leah.

Leah made a dismissive gesture with her free hand. "It was just after I learned Sam and Emily had gotten together, before I phased. Just some guy who picked me up one day at that little coffee shop downtown in Forks. It was meaningless, he wasn't very good, and I was depressed to begin with, so he only made me miss Sam more."

"Why not since then?" Bella asked gently.

Leah shrugged as she wandered over to a room full of lacy bra and panty sets. "Well, I was hung up on Sam, of course, but more importantly, once I'd phased I had no idea how I'd keep it out of the pack mind. There was a petty little part of me that would have loved to have rubbed it in Sam's face. There were a couple guys from the Rez that have had crushes on me since forever that Sam couldn't stand, and it seriously crossed my mind to hook up with one of them and then replay it on a loop when I was phased with him. But, tempting as that was, I would have never gone through with that. It's just not me. And even it if was, Seth sees everything in the pack mind. It's bad enough knowing in any level of detail just how much of a hormone riddled teenage boy he really is; I couldn't stand it if it went the other way." Then she stopped and grinned at Bella. "Plus, I have to maintain my reputation as a bitter harpy, not a promiscuous skank."

"That's not what I meant!" Bella protested, laughing, as she followed Leah into the changing stalls. "But what are you going to do about the pack knowing about Brad?"

Leah hung up her garments in a large stall while Bella sat on the cushion in the corner. "I've gotten over some of it. I can't stop living my life just because it's an open book to those guys. I'm tired of my entire existence being dictated by the wolf and the pack, and if privacy is the sacrifice for having a life, I'm at the point where it's a tradeoff I can make. If the last few months have taught me anything, it's that there is no such thing as privacy for me anymore, whether I like it or not." She illustrates by whipping off her top and jeans right in front of Bella, who hadn't been paying any attention to where she had followed Leah.

Bella looked studiously at the ceiling, but couldn't help but notice Leah's model perfect figure out of the corner of her eye. Particularly when Leah finished lacing herself into a black corset and turned to Bella. "What do you think? I look like a dominatrix. That wasn't what I was going for."

Bella burst out laughing. "You do. I want to get you a riding crop and knee high stiletto boots and put you in charge of the pack."

"I'll bet you that in that getup I could get them all to do whatever I wanted," Leah grinned as she unlaced herself.

Bella pulled down a red corset. "This one is less... intimidating."

Leah needed help with the second piece. Bella spent almost a full five minutes trying to strap her in. "You look gorgeous, Leah."

Leah frowned as she looked into the mirror. "I look like a hooker in a saloon in the old wild west. Plus, after ten minutes of failing to unwrap me from all these ribbons and clasps, Brad's hard-on will be gone."

Bella laughs, "I don't know, Leah. I think he'd love that challenge."

"Too much of a pain. Next."

Leah rejected a floor length negligee for being too pretentious. They both agreed that a simple silk robe was functional and sexy, so Leah set it aside to purchase, and she found three lacy bra and panty sets that fit perfectly. Bella stepped out to grab something simpler than the fancy lingerie Leah had initially found and returned with a few silky camisole and boy short sets that suited her well. Then Bella tried to hand her a red slip with a lace up front that Leah had handed her in the front of the store. Leah gave it right back.

"This isn't for me. It's for you. Or rather, it's for Jake."

Bella's mouth dropped open. "I can't wear lingerie, Leah. I don't look like an underwear model like you do."

Leah rolled her eyes. "You can ride your man's big dick like a bucking bronco, but you can't do it while wearing this? It's a slip, not crotchless panties. Try it on."

Bella blushed and scowled but was tempted. She wanted to see the look in Jacob's eyes when he saw her wearing the slinky clothing. "Fine. But turn around first." Leah complied, but Bella huffed when she realized Leah could still see her in the mirror. Leah snickered and closed her eyes. "Not all of us are used to striding around naked all the time, you know." Bella quickly undressed and pulled the silk over her head. "Okay, you can turn around now."

Bella looked at herself in the mirror, startling herself by liking what she saw. Leah walked around her appraisingly and nodded in approval. "Your legs go on for days, Swan. This shows them off. The back plunges down pretty far, and you've got nice skin to show off. The hem in the back is pretty high. From the right angle you can see the bottom of your ass. And your boobs are just the right size for that thing. Not too big, not too small, nice cleavage without looking slutty. Jake'll see that little bow between your breasts and want to untie it to let them free." Bella looked even more embarrassed, so just to see how red she could turn her friend, Leah added, "Tell Jake I said that. He'll love that we were in here naked together trying on lingerie."

Bella has to thank Leah later. She was right on all points.

Jacob had been planning a slow seduction since Charlie is out of the house for the night, but those intentions fly out the window when Bella, standing in the middle of her bedroom, points to the closed sash at her waist and tells Jacob to open his Christmas present. When he does, his eyes immediately dilate and his heart rate elevates along with hers. He just stares at her for almost a minute, relishing the blush rising in her cheeks and across her chest. The silk and satin frames her chest nicely. He always thinks she looks pretty, but tonight she is a siren. There isn't anything overtly revealing about her choice of sleepwear, but it is so different than her usual cotton that he has to stop and drink in the sight. Bella can't think of anything to say as he gazes at her, unmoving, so she nervously tells him about picking out the lingerie with Leah.

"She dragged me in against my will."

"Good for her," Jacob mumbles and licks his lips.

"You should have seen some of the stuff she tried on, Jake. I couldn't pull off half that stuff, but she looked like she belonged in the catalogue."

Distractedly, Jacob barely registers what Bella is talking about. "Right, catalogue," he repeats.

Bella relaxes and smirks when she realizes that Jacob's brain has shut off just from looking at her. Sometimes she forgets he is just a sixteen year old boy. She decides to keep talking to see what she can do to him and gently pushes him to sit on the edge of her bed. "She tried on these corsets, and they pushed up her boobs like you wouldn't believe. I'd never seen them before, but they're really beautiful, aren't they?"

Confused, Jacob's brow furrows as he unconsciously reaches out a hand to finger the loose sash of her robe, but he doesn't look up from her chest. She can tell he is staring at the tie between her breasts and that he wants to pull it loose. "What, corsets?"

She smiles seductively and runs her fingers along the edges of her robe. Jacob swallows hard. This is fun. "No, Leah's breasts."

Jacob's jaw drops open and he finally looks up at her with wide eyes. "Wait, huh? What did you just say?"

The corner of her mouth quirks up more. "Leah's breasts. They're very pretty, don't you think?"

He blinks at her in aroused panic, suddenly registering her question and wondering if it's a trick. Should he agree with her? Or will he get in trouble for thinking another woman is attractive? "Um... uh... well..."

Bella drops her gaze, noting the stiff erection straining to escape the bounds of his pants, and draws her hands together behind her back, deliberately pushing her breasts toward him. "I've never seen another woman in lingerie, not in person anyway. And I'd never have had the nerve to go buy that sort of thing myself. But she wanted to buy something to show her new boyfriend, and she picked out some stuff for me to try on. At first I was intimidated looking at her undress in the changing room. She's so gorgeous, you know?"

Jacob's eyes visibly glaze over, and Bella feels triumphant. If this is a game, she's winning. "You watched her undress?"

She looks him right in the eye and nonchalantly replies, "Well, yeah. She needed help with the stays and the ties in the corsets, you know? It's hard to get in and out of those things by yourself."

Jacob nods dumbly. "Hard. Right. Hard."

Bella barely holds back a snicker. Jacob himself is very, very hard. "So it was impossible not to notice how she looked. And her skin is so soft."

He chokes out, "Soft. Right. Soft."

She reaches out to trace a finger along his arm. "Reminds me of yours, you know, so warm. That lovely rich color, just like you. But feminine. Curvy. She's nice to touch." Now she is just playing with him, she isn't attracted to Leah, but this is so much fun.

"Oh, God," he rasps.

"We found some things that looked really good on her, some bras and panties, camis, that kind of thing. Of course, she looked great in everything. I thought we were just looking for stuff for her, but she pulled out some for me too. Like this." Bella slips the robe off her shoulders and turns around, peering at him over her shoulder. "She said that my butt looked nice in it. What do you think?"

Jacob finally reaches out for her hips and squeezes them tightly with his large hands. "She's right."

She turns back around in his grasp. Her nipples have tightened under his gaze and are clearly outlined through the red silk. "She said it shows off a nice amount of my skin."

"Uh huh," he mumbles.

"And that you'd probably like to undo this bow right here," she points toward the tie in the center of her chest. "She said my breasts are the perfect size for this slip."

"She looked at your breasts too?" Jacob groans. Bella just nods at him, a little smile on her face.

Jacob can't take the verbal teasing any more. He goes straight for the bow, tugging it open, and the silk parts to reveal her taut nipples. With his other hand, he yanks her onto his lap and draws her into his mouth with a growl.

Now it's her turn to whimper. Eventually, the spaghetti straps end up hanging loosely down her arms, and the bottom of the slip ends up bunched around her waist while he drives wildly into her. Normally, he looks her right in the eyes as he fucks her. This time, he can't take his eyes off her body.

X-x-x-x-X


	8. Chapter 7

X-x-x-x-X

December 23

X-x-x-x-X

The next morning, Jacob slips out the window just minutes before Charlie gets home from his shift. After staring at the robe and slip puddled on the floor by Bella's bed, he leaves her a short note, not wanting to wake her up.

_To the sexiest girl ever, I'm patrolling until three. If I don't show up after that, know that Leah murdered me after spotting my new, inappropriate fantasies of you and her in my brain. I'll be sad to be dead, but it was worth it after last night. Love, Jake._

And indeed, his normally tight control over his memories is not what is usually is. He jogs home in human form and eats a quick breakfast, hoping to settle his mind. But immediately upon phasing in, a mixture of memories from the previous night and fantasies borne of Bella's teasing story filter through.

_Damn! When did that happen? Oh my god, did Leah join you guys last night?_ Quil asks eagerly.

Too late, Jacob gets a hold of his thoughts. Embarrassed, he answers, _No, dude, of course not. Bella just told me about lingerie shopping with Leah and my brain ran away with it._

_Ooh, lingerie shopping. That's almost just as good. Hot girls helping each other in and out of skimpy clothing._

Inadvertently, Jacob replays his memory of Bella seductively approaching him in her new outfit and talking about Leah's breasts. Or Leah looking at her breasts. Then he trips over a fallen log.

Quil would laugh at him, but Quil is too busy relishing Jacob's memory.

_Man, how do you get them to follow through on that? You have to make that happen, and make them let you join in. Or at least watch._

Jared, silent until now, chimes in, _Think that a little louder, both of you. I want to watch Leah take down your horny asses._

Quil then catches up to them mentally and realizes that Jake fell. _Oh, too rich! You've got sex on the brain to the point of not being able to walk straight!_

A new voice joins the pack mind. _Hey, who are we talking about?_

_Perfect!_ Quil laughs. _Jake, Bella, and your sister having a threesome!_

There is a loud groan of disgust from Seth as Jacob protests, _No, no, no. Bella just got me all worked up last night with a story of about lingerie shopping with Leah._

_Oh, did Bella take her shopping?_ Seth asks, naively.

Quil and Jared both laugh. _No, man, your sister dragged Bella out. Jake and Leah's new boyfriend get to reap the benefits._

And Jacob inadvertently replays memories of Bella from the previous night before hearing Quil's howl of laughter and Seth's general discomfort. Jared is just laughs at all three of them and phases out. _This has been fun, guys, but I'd rather go have sex rather than listen to you three stooges talk about it._

Quil calls out, _Say hi to Kim!_ before Jared disappears. Then he chuckles and says, _Okay, I'm bushed. Gonna go get some sleep. Maybe I'll have a nice dream about your girlfriend and your sister!_ He disappears before Jacob and Seth have a chance to respond.

Seth is quiet for a minute. _I didn't know things were serious with any of the guys Leah's seeing._

_I have no idea if she'd call it serious, either,_ Jacob answers. Aside from the fact that she isn't flaunting her dating in front of the pack, Leah usually patrols alone, so there isn't another wolf in her head to pluck out her memories. It means she actually has a modicum of privacy now.

_I can't say I'm comfortable with the idea of her, uh, lingerie shopping for a guy, but I'm really glad she's moving on,_ Seth says. _She seems happy. I just hope that this guy, whoever he is, doesn't give her any trouble._

Jacob laughs a bit at that. _I think she can take care of herself, dude._

Seth snorts. _Not like that. I just don't think she could take it, I could take it, if something like Sam happens to her again._

_Knowing your sister, I'll bet she's not going to put herself in a position to get hurt again anytime soon._

_You're probably right. I wonder how Sam's going to take this?_

Jacob has wondered just the same thing. He has seen in Seth's memory the panic radiating off Sam when he thought Leah had died at Edward's hand outside Bella's house. The feelings Sam had buried beneath his imprint to Emily had risen quickly to the surface. Ever since that moment, it was impossible not to notice Sam looking at Leah just a little too long, just a little too often. _Who knows. He made his bed, he can sleep in it._

_You really think he could have done anything differently, Jake?_ Seth asks.

Jacob pauses before answering. It might not be fair of him to judge Sam; he hasn't been in the other man's position. But he has watched Paul and Rachel's developing relationship, not to mention Quils and Claire's, and they don't very closely resemble Sam and Emily's. But there is really no way to know how much that is due to the differences between Emily, Claire, and Rachel. _Yeah. I do. Maybe it might not have been too different in the end, but he could have put up more of a fight. It might have made it a little easier on your sister, in retrospect, knowing he had at least tried._

Seth ponders this for a few minutes in silence, then quietly asks, _And you really aren't afraid of imprinting on some girl who isn't Bella?_

_No,_ Jacob answers immediately. _Maybe I'm just blindly in love or something, but I'm just not worried. And you can bet on your life that if something does happen, I'll put up more a fight for Bella than Sam did for your sister. She's worth it, Seth._

Satisfied, Seth agrees with him, and they finish the rest of their patrol in relative quiet. When Embry phases in to take over the afternoon patrol, Seth runs back to his house. Jacob watches Leah pull out of the driveway on her way to pick up their aunt and cousin from the airport before Seth disappears from the pack mind. When Collin joins in, Jacob phases out and heads straight to the Swans'. He arrives just as Bella returns home from her shift at Newton's. He doesn't hold back when he greets her.

Jacob strides out of the woods just as Bella opens her truck's door. "Hey, gorgeous." He plants a soft kiss on her lips as he tugs her out of the cab.

She kisses him back as she wraps her legs and arms around him, and he carries her to the house after shutting her truck door with his knee. When she finally separates from his lips, she looks down at his shirtless form. "I know you're really hot and everything, but I'm getting cold just looking at you out here half naked in December."

He smirks at her. "And you look like the Michelin man wrapped up in that puffy jacket," he teases. "Let's get you inside and out of all those layers."

Bella somehow manages to unlock the front door without being let down. He playfully sets her on her feet on the coffee table instead of on the floor, and their heights nearly match. She looks down when he kneels to undo her boots and pull them off her feet. "So this is what it's like looking down on all the little people, huh?"

He grins up at her. "Good thing the top of your head is so cute, Bells." Then he stands and unzips her jacket. "Unwrapping you is so much fun. Too bad you're in work clothes instead of more of that new lingerie."

She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him again, this time tracing her tongue along his lips teasingly. "Who says I don't have any lingerie under here?"

"Mmm," he groans against her mouth and slips his hands under her shirt at her waist, stroking her soft skin. "Do I get to see it now?"

She looks over his shoulder at the clock. "Not unless you want to give my dad a show."

He sighs in disappointment and tucks his face into the crook of her neck, pulling her into a tight embrace. "You're right. I hear him moving around up there. We must've woken him up. Promise I get to see it later?" he smiles as he brushes his lips against her skin, sending tingles through her body.

"Only if you're good," she says as she runs her fingers up and down along his spine.

"I'm always good, Bells."

She shakes her head and smiles. "I don't know about that. I think you're very, very naughty sometimes."

He grips her hips tightly and nips her lips lightly with his teeth. "You'll have to punish me, then," he growls.

She enjoys his touch for as long as it is safe, but pushes him away gently as he protests. "You have to put a shirt on, Jake. My dad might know you're a hot werewolf now, but that doesn't mean he wants to walk in and see it."

He releases her in disappointment and goes to pull a shirt out of one of her drawers, and is reasonably clothed by the time Charlie emerges from his bedroom. They spend a few minutes waiting for Charlie to get ready before heading to the Black house for dinner.

Despite sharing their entire genetic makeup, the twin sisters have entirely different skill levels as cooks. Rebecca, who once set a toaster on fire, is quickly shooed out of the kitchen by her husband. Solomon prepares the family dinner with Rachel's help, while Paul looks on from the doorway. He observes the gentle teasing that flies back and forth between Rachel and her brother in law, and wonders if he can get Elle to teach him how to cook.

Solomon, having seen Jacob and Paul eat massive portions the night before, prepares dinner in enough quantities to not only satisfy the family, but even leave leftovers. He places in front of each person two scoops of rice, macaroni salad, Korean short ribs, teriyaki beef, and sweet and sour chicken.

"It's a miracle," breathes Jacob softly.

"I'm actually going to be full tonight," answers Paul.

Solomon laughs. "You guys are bottomless pits."

"It's brilliant. Three meat entrees at once. Why didn't we think of this before?" Paul asks Jacob.

Jacob digs in and hums in pleasure. "You're the best brother in law ever!"

"Where'd you learn to cook like this, Solomon, and in such giant quantities?" Charlie asks.

"My dad taught me," he answers. "My folks run a Mixed Plate lunch joint. That's what this is."

"Any way we can convince you guys to stay in Washington? I need help feeding these growing boys," Billy grins.

Solomon shakes his head. "A little cloudy here for my taste."

"Too bad. Maybe we'll just have to follow you back home, then."

Jacob notices Bella's face turn toward Rebecca and Solomon with interest. She would like to travel, he knows she would. She would like to visit Hawaii, Europe, cross the country and explore. It was one of the reasons the Cullens' lifestyle intrigued her. Jacob made a bit of cash restoring Mr. Harrison's Shovelhead, but there is no way he can take her to Hawaii. He frowns and glances at his sisters. Can he even manage to go to Seattle for college? Peninsula? Or is a high school diploma and a job in a garage the only option he has?

As Jacob contemplates his future, Paul pats his stomach in contentment. He looks up to see Rachel smiling at him, and warmth settles over him. Bella watches them in fascination.

They are interrupted by the ringing of the kitchen phone, and Jacob jumps up to answer. Upon realizing who is on the other end, he greets him with false enthusiasm. A call from the Cullen family is more likely to bear bad news than good. "Dr. Cullen, happy holidays!"

"Merry Christmas, Jacob. How does everyone fare?"

"Great," he smiles for Rebecca's benefit. "Rachel picked our sister and her husband up from the airport yesterday, and we're just finishing up dinner with the family. Charlie, Bella, and Paul are over, too."

"Wonderful," Carlisle says warmly. "I wanted to pass along our best wishes for the season from the whole family. But I'm sure you have guessed that isn't my only reason for calling."

"Sure, sure. What can we do for you?"

Carlisle's smooth voice betrays the slightest nervousness. "There are two pieces of news I'd like to inform you of. The first, unfortunately I do not know the consequences of. Marcus, the third in the triumvirate that make up the leadership of the Volturi, has apparently left Aro and Caius. As I said, I'm not sure what that will mean in the long run. But it was Chelsea who bound Marcus to the other two."

"So she is either..." he trails off since Rebecca and Solomon are looking at him.

"Dead, yes, or has abandoned Caius and Aro. There is still no news of her, Jane, or Felix. I have no idea if this will have any implications for your pack or your tribe, Jacob, but I thought you would like to know."

"Okay, thanks, I appreciate it," he says with false levity. "There was something else?"

"Of course. Can Bella pick up a phone?"

"Yeah, sure. Bells, can you grab the line in Dad's room?" Jacob tries not to sound impatient.

"Merry Christmas, Carlisle!" Bella doesn't have to fake her enthusiasm.

"Merry Christmas, Bella. It is lovely to hear the sound of your voice."

"How is everyone?" she asks enthusiastically.

"Quite well, my dear. We're in New York for the holiday. Alice didn't think the shopping in Alaska was quite adequate for the season. But I call because of some odd business that concerns you."

"Oh?" her voice falls.

"Our lawyer recently declared Edward legally dead. Normally that sort of thing is a routine event for a lawyer and would not take so long, but you can imagine it was more complicated in this case. Mr. Jenks informed me that Edward updated his will before he died. He had a rather large amount of his own money. He inherited it from his natural born parents upon their deaths, and over the years it was well invested. Our lawyer informs us that his estate needs to be distributed."

"And?" Jacob fails to see what this could possibly have to do with them.

"All the other children have their wills such that their assets divide between their spouses and myself and Esme."

"Okay, so..." Jacob prompts as his stomach begins to grind with anxiety.

"Edward, accordingly, left his estate to Bella."

Jacob has to actively calm himself. He turns to face the wall and focuses his thoughts on Bella to keep the fury at bay. No one has ever made him feel as inadequate as Edward Cullen. He thought he had finally defeated his undead rival. But even from beyond his ashen grave, he keeps reaching out his influence over Bella.

Whatever information comes next is sure to make him livid, and he absolutely cannot phase in the kitchen in front of Rebecca. "Is that so?" he says through clenched teeth.

"The wheels have already been set in motion. It will all go to you, Bella."

"Um, okay," she says quietly.

"Approximately $133.4 million, give or take a few hundred thousand, after taxes, and the family home in Chicago."

Simultaneously, Bella drops her phone, Jacob crushes his handset in his fist, and Paul chokes on his food. The sight of Paul coughing uncontrollably distracts Solomon and Rebecca enough that they do not notice Jacob taking the broken phone away and into his father's bedroom where Bella sits on Billy's bed with a stunned look on her face.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" Bella speaks into the phone.

"Whatever you wish, my dear, as it is yours," Carlisle answers gently. "But might I suggest that the tribe might find some of it useful?"

Jacob shakes in place, and the already broken phone turns to dust in his fist. "We don't need charity from the likes of Edward Cullen," he growls. And in an attempt not to destroy his father's bedroom, he pushes open the window and launches himself into the night. His clothes fall off him like so much confetti as he phases. He hears Bella calling out for him, but he can't stay and listen. How is it that Edward Cullen can keep insulting him from beyond the grave? How is it that the dead leech can flaunt Jacob's shortcomings from the afterlife?

Embry and Collin startle at the sudden, angry presence of their Alpha.

_What's going on?_ Collin asks.

_Is there a leech?_ Embry asks.

Jacob growls back, _I wish. Then I could rip one apart._

_Is Bella okay? Your sisters?_ Embry probes.

Jacob laughs bitterly as he sprints through the forest, no particular destination in mind. _Oh, yeah. Bella's great. Just got a bit of news._

He replays the phone conversation, and Collin says only a quiet, _Whoa,_ in reply.

Jacob runs for several minutes while Embry processes his memories. His frustration churns in his belly and he runs harder to let it out.

Embry is hung up on the news about The Volturi. _I don't understand. What does that mean for us? Why are you so pissed? Do you think they're coming back or something?_

Jacob slows just a little as he contemplates the possibility. _Great. Something else to worry about. No. I'm pissed at Cullen._

_The doctor?_ Embry asks, confused.

_We're not charity cases_, Jacob growls, thinking of Carlisle's suggestion to donate money to the tribe. _But I'm pissed at Edward. He's dead and gone. I need him to stay that way. Not pop up at every turn reminding Bella of what I can't give her!_

_Did she say anything to make you think that's how she feels?_ Embry asks sternly. Jacob slows even further. He replays his memory in his mind. He doesn't answer. Embry continues, _What are you doing out here? Go home, Jake. Bella's got to be freaked out the way you left her like that. Not to mention your sisters are both there._

_I can't keep competing with him, _Jacob grumbles miserably.

_Competing? You tore his head off and got his girl. He's burned to ash and never coming back. I'm pretty sure you won, Jake._

Jacob halts at the cliff's edge overlooking the ocean. _I got her a picture album for Christmas. And he gave her over a hundred million dollars and a mansion._

_He's gone, Jake, and you killed him. Go home to her._

Jacob stares at the rough waves, stubbornly angry at Edward Cullen but knowing Embry is right. He turns for home, but just as he does so, he hears an eagle's cry. He looks up, and the now familiar creature circles directly above him. It screeches once more and takes off in a northeasterly direction. It calls to him a third time.

Jacob's attention is immediately refocused. _Stay on alert. I'm following it. Collin, keep to the ocean's edge. Embry, to the eastern border of the Rez. _ And he sprints after it.

Swiftly, it leads him off the reservation. He follows it across the old treaty line, past the empty Swan house, and further east. He gets a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knows which way he is headed.

Before he arrives at his destination, he smells it. Acrid, oversweet, bleach and death. A vampire. Very close. He picks up speed and follows the trail. The eagle and the stench lead right for the Cullen mansion. But he knows the scent does not belong to a Cullen.

_Embry, to me._ Following the fresh scent leads right through the Cullens' open front door, through the house, and out the back. It is strong. So strong. Jacob pushes himself faster as he leaps through the back door, landing agilely in the yard.

He sprints, the stench getting worse with every step, the eagle leading the way.

But upon reaching the highway, the trail dead ends. _Shit!_ Jacob yells.

_Nothing, huh?_ Embry asks.

_It must have hopped in a car,_ Jacob answers. He looks to the eagle for guidance, but it sits placidly in a tree. _Go back to the Rez, I'm going to follow the road for a bit._ Jacob does so, but after several miles turns for home. It could be anywhere by now.

_Neither one of you recognized that, did you?_ Both Embry and Collin deny it. _I'm gonna see if anyone else recognizes that scent._

Jacob runs back to La Push, mind swirling. What was that? No random nomad, he suspects. The eagle didn't come get him just to look for a passer-through that stopped to eat no one.

He heads to Sam's house before remembering that he and Emily have gone to her parents' house for the holiday, so then he turns for the Clearwaters'. The lights are all on and the home looks inviting, but Jacob's mood is black. He phases back to hunan before realizing he shredded his clothes and goes around back. All the pack members have started to leave spare clothes in plastic bins in their sheds or garages for moments like these. He finds a pair of basketball shorts and one of Seth's shirts, quite tight across his broad chest, and throws them on. He strides up the front porch and knocks loudly without registering the unfamiliar voices inside, lost as he is in his resentment toward Edward Cullen and worry over the mysterious scent.

Sue opens the front door. "Jacob! Merry Christmas," she greets brightly before she sees the angry scowl on his face. She lowers her voice. "What is it? Is everything all right?"

"I need Seth and Leah. I ran across a leech trail, but it dead ended at the highway. I need to know if they recognize the scent."

She nods immediately. "Of course, let me get them. My sister in laws and their families are here, so it may be a second. Should I get Brady too? Do you want to come in?" She steps back and opens the door further, and he looks inside the house and nods in answer. Leah steps into the room, chatting with someone behind her.

And then a sweet, floral scent fills his nostrils, and from behind Leah steps a beautiful girl. He sees caramel colored skin just a shade lighter than his, sensuous full lips turned up in a smile, thick wavy black hair falling in front of pert, large breasts, the dip of a slim waist turning gently into the curve of feminine hips, and hears a soft voice whisper, "Oh my God..."

He looks up, directly into sparkling green eyes.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my wonderful beta, Babs81410 at JBNP.


	9. Chapter 8

X-x-x-x-X  
December 23  
X-x-x-x-X

"Hello," Jacob greets the girl. At the very moment his eyes meet hers, his wolf stirs within him. It growls inexplicably, snarling low in his mind. He shifts uneasily. Her scent makes him dizzy and uncomfortable. A knot forms in the pit of his stomach, while a heaviness settles in his groin.

She steps forward with a smile spreading across her pretty features. "Jacob Black, I'd recognize you anywhere! Leah told me, but I didn't quite believe her. You're all grown up!"

He has to calm his agitated wolf in order to remember who she is. He ought to know. Leah told him already. He has to stop himself from growling out loud. Instead, he clears his throat. "It's been a while. Jasmine, right?"

Her smile widens further. "You remember me," she says happily and moves toward him.

He steps back to keep his wolf from snapping at her. What's wrong with him? She's just a nice girl he went to school with. Cousin to three of his pack members. She's no threat, and they actually used to be friends. Why is his wolf so aggressive?

He forces a tight lipped smile. "Sure. We go way back."

She doesn't pick up on his thinly veiled hostility, but Leah does, shooting a concerned and confused look his way. Jasmine continues toward him until she is close enough to put her hand on his forearm, which is the same moment she realizes how underdressed he is. Her eyes widen as she takes in his heavily muscled form under Seth's ill-fitting clothing.

At the touch of her skin against his, he feels two disparate and distinct sensations. Arousal, sharp and unexpected, and anger, inexplicable and nearly overwhelming. The urge to phase is strong. His wolf snarls in his mind and starts chanting his true love's name. He needs her. He has to have her.

"Where's your jacket?" Jasmine tugs at him to come inside from the cold. He shakes in place with the effort not to shift into his wolf and attack her. She isn't a threat, is she?

Leah sees the risk to her cousin and rescues them both. "You ruined another coat, didn't you? Gotta remember to use something old and ratty while you work in your garage." She reaches for his other hand and places herself between Jasmine and Jacob. She drags him up the stairs. "Come on up to Seth's room, we'll find something for you."

Seth jogs up behind them. "I'll help."

Jasmine peers outside with a confused furrow on her brow, seeing no car and wondering if Jacob walked over with no coat. Brady distracts Jasmine by offering her a cup of coffee. Leah shuts her own bedroom door behind Jacob and Seth. "What the hell is going on?" she demands.

"I don't know," Jacob answers as he runs his hands through his hair. "I need Bella."

Leah snorts and eyes the prominent outline of his erection through Seth's shorts. Jacob tugs at the hem of his undersized shirt to hide his bulbous head poking above the waistline. Seth notices, saying, "Jeez, Jake, I don't want those clothes back now."

Leah narrows her eyes at him. "You're in the wrong place. Your girlfriend is at your house, isn't she?"

Jacob tries to focus through his haze of lust and anger. "Yeah, yeah," he breathes deeply to calm himself down. It doesn't really work. The floral scent from downstairs fills his nostrils and makes everything worse.

"Why are you here?" Leah asks.

Jacob blinks a few times and refocuses. "I smelled a leech sneaking around the Cullen place. I need you both to phase and see if you recognize it."

"Did you see anything? Where is it now?" Leah asks.

"Hopped in a car not long before I was going to catch up to it. I never saw anything, just smelled it."

"You want us to phase right now?" Seth asks.

"Yeah, could be important," he nods. Plus, he can't stand not to phase for much longer anyway.

Leah opens her window. "Fine." She drops lightly to the ground. Seth and Jacob follow. A minute later they are in the woods and connected in the pack mind.

Embry and Collin are still there. They immediately pick up on Jacob's agitation. _What happened? _Collin asks in concern.

Jacob can't answer. He can barely focus enough to remember what he came out to do. His wolf is taking over, and it wants its mate. The chanting of her name drowns out anything else. His mind is flooded with images of her, memories from his dreams and his waking life. The sound of her moaning his name, the sight of her back arched as he drives himself deep inside her, her hooded gaze seductively peeking up at him as she takes his dick into her mouth, the scent of her arousal driving him wild.

_Jesus, man, you're worse than Paul used to be. Get a grip. The vamp, Jake, tell Seth and Leah about the leech, _Embry chides.

Jacob shakes his head and breathes deep of the cold winter air. _Sorry, sorry. The leech. _But thinking of vampires makes him think of Edward and his money, which only flares his anger further and reminds him of her, which drives his lust to a new peak. He needs to find her, strip her naked, and bury himself inside her tight heat.

_Jacob Ephraim Black! _Leah yells sternly and sinks her teeth lightly in his ear. The pain makes him yelp in surprise. _Get a hold of yourself!_

_Sorry, sorry_. He drags his more recent memories up through his fog of lust. _It followed this path._ He shows them the route he followed. _And this was the scent._

Leah and Seth both deny any familiarity with the foul stench. Leah sees how far gone Jacob is and says, _Okay, we'll check with the others tonight. The next patrol will be on soon; we'll let them know to keep an eye out. Go find Bella. Maybe she can screw some sense back into you._

With that, Jacob is gone. His aching need permeates the pack mind, driving Seth out immediately with the excuse that he will go inform the rest of the pack. But rather than stay in wolf form and listen to Jacob's passionate memories, he takes off on foot in human form. Embry and Collin remain on patrol, briefly interrogating Leah about the state of their Alpha. She has no answers for them and goes back inside by way of her second story window to face her family. She waits in her room for a few minutes trying to come up with a plausible explanation for Jacob's bizarre behavior and disappearance.

And indeed, as soon as Jasmine spots her, she wants to know what happened to Jacob and where Seth has gone. "Oh, he needed help making a Christmas present. It's handmade, and he was hoping Seth could give him a hand. He'll be back soon."

Jasmine's face falls immediately. "I was hoping to catch up with him. But they'll be back?"

Leah cocks a brow at her cousin. What is going on with Jacob and Jasmine? "No, just Seth is coming back. Jacob's headed to his girlfriend's house after, I'm pretty sure."

Jasmine looks crestfallen.

Meanwhile, a couple miles away, Jacob sprints back to his house. He can think of only one thing. Mating with Bella. He hears his brothers trying to ignore him, and one of Embry's thoughts slips through. _How are you going to get her away from her dad?_

Jacob has no response. He is perfectly prepared to just barge in, throw her over his shoulder, and walk off. He'll fuck her in the first secluded spot he can find.

When he approaches his own home, he hears that everyone is still awake and talking, but he notices gratefully that Charlie's cruiser is gone. He has an overnight shift that Jacob, in his distraction, has complely forgotten about. He slides his bedroom window open and crawls in silently. He strides into the living room, and everyone turns to stare at him. He has no idea what Solomon and Rachel think he was doing, and he absolutely does not care. Nothing else matters. Nothing but his Bella. She stares up at him with her wide, pretty brown eyes.

"You've got a key to the Cullen place, right?" he finds himself asking. Bella nods in confusion. "They need us to run over there. Alarm went off, and they need us to check on it." Somewhere in the back of his brain it registers that this makes no sense. But he says it with such calm confidence that no one questions him, at least not out loud. He doesn't take his eyes of Bella, who keeps staring at him.

He holds out his hand to her. "Not sure when we'll be back. Don't wait up for us," he announces to no one in particular. Bella examines him carefully before taking his hand and standing.

She turns to Solomon. "Dinner was great, thank you. See you guys tomorrow," she waves as Jacob pulls her out the door.

"My jacket's still in there," she protests.

"Doesn't matter," he grumbles as he lifts her off her feet. He presses his mouth to hers in a demanding kiss and she wraps her legs around him. He walks them to the garage while he attacks her mouth, his grip sinking tightly into her flesh.

She squirms against him with sudden arousal and confusion. He lays her on the hood of his Rabbit and grinds down into her soft little body, biting at her collarbone with his sharp teeth. She moans, "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

He hooks his fingers into her waistband and tugs down, but her stiff jeans don't budge. "I need you," he growls.

"It's freezing out here, Jake," she protests. "Take me home, Charlie will be gone until morning."

He pumps his erection between her clothed legs and grunts. "Too far."

With his right he slides his hand between them and palms her crotch roughly. "I have to have you. I need to be inside you. I need to fuck you, Isabella, and I need it now." His eyes flash at her, and she is instantly ready. The feral look on his face and the distinctive voice of his Alpha wolf turn her on like nothing else. She nods mutely and licks her lips involuntarily. He growls at the sight.

"I'm yours, Jacob," she whispers. "I don't know what happened, but I promise I'll take care of you. Whatever you need." She places her right hand over his heart and grasps his right hand with hers, pressing it against her own chest, reminding him that their hearts beat in sync.

A low grumble sounds from deep in his chest as she pushes against his chest with both hands. Pleased with her words, he allows himself to be moved until he is standing. She slithers off the hood of his car and turns them both to give herself room, then pulls up the hem of Seth's tight shirt. He whips it over his head in the next instant, breaking her soulful gaze with him for only a fraction of a second. She sees lust, passion, desperation, and rich, warm love staring down at her.

She drops to her knees before him. "I'm here," she reassures him. Reassures his wolf. "I'm here and I'm yours." She pulls off his shorts in a swift movement, and he kicks them aside.

His cock is painfully hard, has been so since he left the Clearwaters', and his tip weeps clear fluid for his mate. Without breaking eye contact, she snakes out her tongue to catch the salty precum. Instead of just swallowing it down, she licks her lips with the sticky liquid. It leaves a shiny coating to accentuate her full mouth, and Jacob audibly hisses an intake of breath watching her.

He fists his hands in her hair and tugs her closer. She sees the wild look in his eye and knows what he needs. She snakes her tongue out and runs it up along the throbbing vein on his cock. "I love you, Jacob Black." She kisses the head sweetly. "I'm not going anywhere." She takes him in just a couple inches and suckles as he moans, then releases him. "I want you to feel good." She wraps her fist around his base and pumps him firmly. "I'll make it better." She massages his balls with her other hand. "Take what you need."

With a loud groan, his fingers dig into her scalp, and he presses forward into her willing, open mouth. His thrusts are shallow but firm. He tosses his head back with a snarl and uses her mouth for his pleasure. He wants her naked and writhing under him, but there is no way to resist her willing submission. Somewhere, in the back of his brain, he realizes that the unheated garage is no place to strip her naked in the middle of winter. If she can give him a release now, he just might make it long enough to get her inside somewhere.

"I'm going... Unhh... to do... Mmph... whatever I want... with you... to you..." He growls and thrusts deeper between her swollen, red lips. "And you're... Mmm... going to..." he grits his teeth with the intensity of his desire, "take... ummm... everything... unhhh... I give you."

She pulls back just far enough to moan, "And I'm going to love it." Because she will. Whether he takes her quickly or slowly, touches her roughly or gently, whether he tortures her for hours with his lips and hands or if he just shoves her up against the wall and fucks her, she will love it. Because not only is her body attuned to his, not only is his spirit entwined inexorably with hers, not only does he want nothing more than to be with her and to please her, but everything he does with her he does out of love.

The truth of her statement rings in his ears and drives his lust to a fever pitch. He knows how true it is. He can smell her arousal rising in the air around them. She isn't flattering him or pacifying him or just telling him what he wants to hear. She is in tune with him. Her body responds to his, her want rapidly rising to match his own. It drives his wolf into a frenzy. The man can barely keep from phasing into his feral animal and pinning her down to choke her with his dick or flip her over and take her, but he knows her human body, as lovely in its softness as it is fragile, could never accommodate his Alpha wolf's cock.

Instead, he yanks her by her hair with both hands, holding her still, and plunders her mouth with his stiff length.

She is practiced at pleasing him. She knows just how to relax her jaw to accomodate his enormity and how to suppress her gag reflex to allow him into her throat. She breathes calmly through her nose in rhythm with his forceful thrusts and grasps the base of his cock with her tight fist. No matter how skilled she becomes, she could never fit him all the way in. But it doesn't matter. She knows how to undulate her tongue along his sensitive length, can tell just how much suction to use, understands intimately the sensations she causes to radiate from his dick through his whole body when she hums and moans around him. She had learned most of what she needed to know by simply practicing and listening to his response, and best of all, following his explicit directions, but now that she can feel the echoes of his pleasure in her own body, is supremely attuned to pleasing him. And as she fulfills his needs, she fulfills her own.

So as she senses just how close he is, she looks up at him, eyes shining brightly in the dark, and stares into his hungry gaze. She tugs gently at his balls, takes him in as far as she can stand, and suckles hard. He explodes, his cry hoarse and desperate. Jacob is overwhelmed by the force of his release, and she almost is as well as hot streams of salty cum shoot down her throat. The force of his pleasure triggers the reflection of an orgasm between her own legs. He thinks idly that Paul must have heard them, but hopefully no one else.

He tugs her to her feet and ravages her mouth with his lips and tongue. Rather than being sated, he only wants her more. She tastes of him, and it drives his wolf wild. He will not be satisfied until she is as needy as he is, and has come shaking around him, again and again.

He places her back on her feet with every intention of ripping her clothes off her body. But then he sees her shiver from the damp winter chill, and somehow it registers that she needs more warmth and shelter than the drafty garage can provide. He pushes her toward the car and gathers up his borrowed clothes, slipping on the shorts but not bothering with the shirt.

As he climbs in the driver's seat, she asks, "My house?"

He looks over, raking over her flushed cheeks, mussed hair, swollen pink lips, and rumpled clothes, and shakes his head. His voice is clipped and hard. "Like I said. Too far." He pulls out of the small structure and turns deeper into the reservation. "I can't wait that long to be inside you, and you don't want to wait that long for me to make you come."

She nods at him, the force of his desire for her pushing her own to dizzying heights. "Anything you want. Anywhere you want," she whispers.

His hands grip the steering wheel so tightly that she thinks he will snap through it. If he lets go, he won't be able to keep his hands off her. He swallows thickly. "I'm yours, you know that, right?"

She nods slowly at him. She does know that, but does he mean anything in particular by it? Is this about Edward's money? Somehow, she doesn't think so. "And I'm yours. Always," she answers simply. It is the right thing to say, apparently. Because she sees him relax marginally, enough, at least, for her to stop worrying if he has enough focus to operate the car.

Less than five minutes later they arrive at their destination. The small house is dark and uninviting, a stark contrast to its usual bright warmth. "Did Sam and Emily say we could use it while they're away?" she asks. He just looks at her with an inscrutable expression and shakes his head.

Jacob is out of the car and unlocking the front door before she even has her door opened. He flicks on a single light before returning to sweep her up and run inside. She fully expects him to yank her pants off and bury himself inside her, but instead he backs up into the middle of the living room, shoves the coffee table back with his foot without taking even glancing briefly away from her, and growls, "Strip." His fists are clenched at his sides.

Her hands shake with nervous tension as she complies. She isn't afraid, exactly, but Jacob barely seems in control of himself tonight. She pulls her simple long sleeved cotton shirt over her head and slowly unbuttons her fly, wriggling out of her pants, shoes, and socks. She is left only in his jewelry and a black and white lace and satin balconette bra and string bikini set that she had purchased with Leah. His breathing grows heavy and his pupils dilate from the sight of her.

He shakes in place as he stares at her from across the room, and she starts toward him. She wants to calm him with her hands on his skin or let him work his aggression out in her body. She finds herself incredibly turned on. But he stops her in her tracks by flicking one hand out and stepping backward himself into the open center of the room. "I can't..." His voice is strangled as she has never heard it before. "I don't..." He chokes, "I have to..."

And before her very eyes, the air shimmers around him and he phases into his wolf, destroying Seth's shorts. The huge animal dominates the living room. Bella gasps in surprise.

Jacob stalks toward her. She doesn't move, frightened though she is. After all, this is her Jacob, one way or another. The red wolf stands silently before her, his huge black eyes drinking her in. Then he tips his head down and nudges the straps of her bra down her arms with his snout. She takes the hint and removes the offending garment. The wolf purrs low in its chest as he ignores the startled exclamations of Embry, Collin, Seth, and Jared in his mind. His huffing, hot breath washes over her skin. The wolf is scenting her, and as he does so shifts enough that she can see that the animal is as aroused as the man. It is an intimidating sight, but it provokes an answering reaction in her. A rush of damp arousal soaks her already moist panties.

Jacob growls at the scent as his packmates yell at him not to break her body with his wolf form. He cannot resist her, not with her nearly naked and dripping for him. Jacob the man struggles for control with Jacob the wolf. She is his mate, his one and only. He wants her. He must have her.

Bella's eyes widen further as the giant wolf bares its teeth and lowers its muzzle to her waist. She trembles in place. Is the animal going to push her down and mount her? She gasps aloud when she feels his nose press into her belly, and she cries out in arousal and alarm when she feels him hook the waistband of her panties in his teeth and work them down and off her. His huge head returns to her belly, so she reaches out her hands and runs them through his thick, silky fur.

It is the perfect action. Without warning, her beautiful, human Jacob is kneeling at her feet, his arms wrapped around her middle, his face buried in her stomach. He is still shaking as he holds her tight.

When he rides and pulls away, she is bereft, but she marvels at his naked form. He is magnificent. His huge, solid cock juts proudly out from his body. Clear fluid shines at the tip and her mouth waters as she tastes the remnants of him on her tongue. His skin glows in the dim lamplight. His strong jaw is tight and his eyes gleam with a wild light. The planes of his prominent musculature entice her. "Kneel," he commands. He swiftly grabs one of the ties that holds back the drapery from the front window, a silky braided rope. And before she knows what is happening, he has her wrists bound together in front of her.

He steps back, and she sees him shaking in place trying to stay in control. His voice chokes out, "Is this okay?" He sounds husky and low, and the Alpha tenor is gone momentarily. He looks pained, and she realizes why. His wolf needs to dominate her, needs to show how completely he controls her, but the man remembers her wrists and ankles tied down to a four poster bed at the mercy of a monster. She relaxes perceptibly and answers, "Yes, Jake. I trust you."

He lets out a relieved sigh and tugs her to the darkened kitchen. "Then bend over," he instructs her. She complies, leaning over Sam's sturdy kitchen table. He loops the free end of her restraint around a table leg on the opposite side, stretching her out with just enough leeway to allow her to lean slightly on her elbows. The wood is cool against her skin.

He moves to stand behind her. He spreads her legs apart with his hands, and the position results in her toes barely reaching the floor. He is so hard that it hurts. He cannot wait any longer. He needs to be inside her more desperately than he has ever needed anything. There is a hunger at his soul that can be sated by her and her alone, and an anger buzzing in his skull that only she can calm.

So he grasps her buttocks in his large hands and separates her folds with his thumbs. He actually grunts aloud in satisfaction to see how swollen she has become, how aroused she is in response to him, despite the fact that he has not prepared her body as he usually does. He positions himself at her entrance and slides in just the engorged head of his cock. He chokes on gasping breaths as the man wars with the beast. He needs to communicate with his mate. But her wet heat begs him to satisfy his carnal cravings on her pliant form. Before he thrusts forward, he leans to press his chest fully against her back and reaches up to tuck her thick hair behind her ear. In the tenderest, softest voice possible, a direct contradiction to nearly every action preceding this moment, he whispers directly into her ear, his warm breath tickling her skin. The Alpha tone is unmistakable. "I love you forever."

And he slams all the way home.

Bella screams. Jacob fucks her hard and fast like the wild animal that he is. She burns with him, pain indecipherable from pleasure. She is engulfed, engorged, enraptured with Jacob. His monstrous cock pistons in and out of her tight channel, the head pounding against her womb and sending shockwaves out in every direction to drown her in bliss. The edge of the table digs into her thighs, the rope bites into her wrists, and she claws at the table for purchase and finds none. She is powerless beneath him. Even without her restraints, she is no match for his size and strength. She is wholly at his mercy, and she loves it. He fulfills her deepest desires. For her, it is utter perfection.

And for him, she is exactly what he longs for, has always longed for. He stares at her creamy skin, shining with perspiration and reflecting the light of the moon filtering in through the window. He grips her buttocks, fingers wrapping around her hips, and the sight of his hands sinking into her flesh is almost as arousing as the image of his cock dragging in and out of her pussy, slick with her juices. Her cunt grabs at him. Her labia swell and flush from his raw use of her. He can't get enough. He drives into her again and again. He has never been so out of control, not even when he marked her for the first time in wolf form in their dreams. No other woman could ever satisfy him as she does. Her gasping cries enflame him. Her scent intoxicates him. He is drunk on her.

The ache in his cock is somehow both heightened and relieved by the sensation of her clenching around him. Despite the fact that he already orgasmed in her mouth only minutes ago, he is unable to last. His need is simply too great. Her body is too perfect as it surrounds him, both how she looks and how she feels as her walls grip him. Her aroused wails are the sweetest sound he had ever heard. And after all, what his wolf truly needs in this moment is to dominate, to possess, and to own in every way possible. What his wolf wants is to plant his seed and impregnate her. They are safe from this, of course, due to the miracle of modern medicine, but that doesn't stop his wolf from trying.

He curses as he slams his cock deep inside her, and they are the last words she is able to understand. He hisses through his clenched jaw, barely able to keep himself from phasing inside her. His wolf growls to be released again, to release his animal form on her soft and willing one. He pants and snarls as he thrusts in and out, and he sweats with the effort to remain in human form. The beast would love to unleash its lust on her, but he knows her body cannot withstand it.

Instead, he waits just long enough that he feels the telltale signs of her approaching her climax. He very nearly doesn't make it that long. But the sound of his frenzied growls, the pounding of his length, the helplessness of her position beneath him and the rope around her wrists, all these things combine with the very force of his urgency push her to the edge in record time. Soon, very soon, she begins to shake with her own orgasm, her hot pussy spasming around his throbbing cock.

As soon as he feels it, he roughly turns her head to the side, whipping her hair away from her neck, and he laps at the faint white mark his teeth had left before. She whimpers her assent through the waves of her orgasm, and he sinks his teeth deep into the skin of her shoulder. They are both overcome. He slams himself as far as he can go and releases. She feels every inch of him, from his breath in her hair, to his lips and teeth in her skin, to his broad muscular chest along her back pressing her into the table, to each and every inch of his cock in her most intimate places. Her womb is bathed in his heat, and she is intoxicated with him.

He doesn't know how long it lasts, nor does she. He becomes aware of his surroundings again when he feels her chuckling beneath him, and he eventually realizes his entire heavy form is draped over hers, squishing her into Sam's kitchen table.

He lifts himself off her, slipping out of her in the process. "Oh, shit, honey, I'm so sorry." He unwinds the rope from the table leg, and she unsteadily stands.

"What are you sorry for, Jake? I loved every second of that."

He meets her eyes and sees the mischievous glint in her eyes. Her hair is wild around her head, her lips are swollen and red, she smells of him, there is an indentation along her thighs where she was pressed into the edge of the table, a trickle of his own seed runs down her thighs, and her wrists are still bound. His cock jumps toward her. He cannot get enough of her. His wolf speaks low, "Good. Again."

He realizes he still has the long end of the silken cord in his hands. He pulls at it gently and she grins. He leads her up the stairs and into Sam's guest bedroom. Now he is able to take his time. Their urgent coupling was exactly what he needed, but it wasn't enough. "We're not done, Isabella," his wolf speaks to her.

Her breathing grows heavy and she nods at him. "Up on the bed," he instructs.

She crawls up as best she can with her wrists still tied together, leaning down on her hands and knees, and looks over her shoulder at him. "Tempting," he breathes, "but I've already enjoyed you that way. On your back."

She smiles wickedly at him and complies. He kneels on the foot of the bed and stalks up toward her. He can't stop his wolf from scenting her again, starting at the tips of her toes. She hears the snuffling sound of him breathing her in, and her skin sparks with electricity everywhere his nose or his lips meet her skin. He moves up her legs until he is above her knees, then he can't help but nip at the tender skin of her inner thighs. She agreeably spreads her legs to allow him access, and she moans when he stops and breathes deeply at the juncture between her legs. She feels the essence of him and the essence of her leaking out of her, and he growls when he sees it.

She expects him to taste her then, or possibly just bury his cock back inside her, as he appears ready again, but instead he continues up her body. He places open-mouthed kisses on her belly, dips his tongue into her navel, causing a new wave of arousal through her core, and then slithers up to bury his face between her breasts. He inhales there slowly before shifting over far enough to kiss each nipple lightly. But instead of stopping and suckling at them, he continues up, kissing the mark on her breast gently, then up along her neck and under her jaw. Finally he hovers right over her lips, and she parts them for him. But instead of kissing her, he gives her a sweet Eskimo kiss on the nose as she giggles. And before she knows it, he is above her, and he has tied her wrists above her head to the wrought iron headboard. There are a couple feet of loose rope between her wrists and the knot at the metal, so she can still move quite a bit. She yanks on it experimentally and he challenges, "Somewhere else you need to be?"

She pauses, looks him directly in the eye and answers, "No. What I need is to be here with you."

He grins at her ferally. "You're right." He rakes his eyes up and down her prone form. "So where should I start?"

"Wherever you want," she answers, her voice low. He smiles wider. It is the correct answer.

He begins at her sensitive clavicles, using his sharp teeth to nip at her sensitive skin. It isn't hard enough to leave marks, but she feels each pinch all the same. Shivers run through her body. Next he moves to the mark on her breast, but instead of the light kiss he left there earlier, he laves at it with his tongue. She is already keyed up from her recent orgasm, and the skin there is extraordinarily sensitive. Within seconds he has her squirming under him and moaning for more.

But this time he can be patient. His thirst for her has been quenched, at least slightly, enough that he can take his time. He wants her as needy as he was when he came to her. So as soon as she begins to approach the precipice of another climax, he shifts away and kisses along the side of her breast, trailing his fingertips along the opposite side. It almost tickles, so her squirming changes from an attempt to bring his mouth closer to a pointless attempt to get away. When he has her giggling, he switches tactics again and wraps his full lips around her right nipple and begins to suckle. A ripple of pleasure radiates outward. He feels the echo in his own body and is pleased. He draws her higher and higher with his lips and teeth and tongue, then backs away when she gets close. She writhes and tugs at her bindings. He rises up so that he can straddle her hips, relishing the sight of his dark, engorged length resting on her smooth, taut belly. She looks down at their contrasting flesh, but says nothing. He isn't going to stop until she begs him to make her come again with his cock. He ghosts his fingertips over her erect nipples, eliciting a sigh from her lips. He barely touches her, so she arches her back to try to increase the contact. It doesn't work. He just moves his hands down to draw patterns on her belly and flanks. When he senses that her arousal starts to wane in favor of relaxation, he moves his fingers up to trace her areolae in swirling circles until they are stiff peaks.

"You like to be touched, don't you?" he murmurs. Despite the quiet tone, the sound of his Alpha wolf is unmistakable.

"Yes," she sighs.

He gently pinches her nipples, not as hard as she'd like, but enough to get her worked up and wriggling under him. The movement of her body feels good against his erection.

"You like being tied down." It isn't a question.

She nods and bites her lip. The little habit drives him wild, and he shifts his hips over her and enjoys the slide of his hardened flesh against her soft skin.

"You like that you have no control," he says, eyeing her restrained wrists.

"Mmm..." she hums as he twists her nipples harder.

"You like that I can do anything I want to you."

"I do," she moans as arousal spikes through her.

"You like it when I tell you all the things I want to do to you, don't you?"

"Yes," she groans. He bends over to nibble on her breasts, and the position brings his cock in contact with her core. She lifts her hips to him to try to press her aching clitoris against him, but he backs away. Instead he bites down, suckles, and pinches until she is ready to orgasm from the sensation at her breasts, then stops abruptly. She cries out in wordless protest. But she hasn't begged him, so he doesn't let her come.

"You like it even more when I touch myself for you, don't you?" He sits back enough to take several long, hard pulls on his cock, and she groans at the sight of his throbbing length in his big fist. The tip weeps clear fluid, and he smooths it over the large head with a twist of his wrist. "You love that I only think of you when I do this."

"I do." She squirms against the rope holding her down. She wants his hands, his lips, his cock on her, in her, but she would settle for being able to pleasure herself for him.

"Maybe I'll come all over your pretty breasts," he growls.

"Ooh," she sighs. His words, his voice, his lurid descriptions produce a rush of wetness between her thighs.

"Or maybe I'll ride you until I come right here," he trails his index finger along the slit between her thighs.

"Yes," she twists her hips to press against his hand, but he pulls away again.

"Maybe I'll shove my cock back down your throat as I eat you out."

"Oh god, yes. Please," she whimpers.

He grins at her. This is what he wants. "Please, what?"

She tugs futilely against her bonds. She needs his body pressed against hers. "Please, Jacob. I want it."

"Want what?" he isn't going to do anything until she says exactly what she wants.

She squeezes her eyes shut. "I want your cock. I want your tongue on me. I want to come," she whispers.

"Then you're in luck." He leans over until his lips gently brush against her ear. She shivers in response. He whispers, "Because I love to make you come." Then he presses his lips to hers. They are tender, soft, and passionate. She almost forgets what he is going to do as she loses herself in his plush, warm lips.

She even protests when he pulls away, saying, "Hey, where are you going?"

He smirks at her smugly. "Don't worry, baby, you don't think I'm just going to leave you here, trussed up for Sam to come home and find." He maneuvers himself with his knees by her head and his head by her hips and gently tugs her over him. She props herself up with her forearms on his hips. She can't do much with her wrists tied together, but her tongue and lips are free. Just as she bends her head to lick his thick shaft, the scent of her own body covering him making her dizzy with lust, he parts her folds with his fingers and plunges his tongue into her entrance. She gasps and loses her focus.

He backs off and chuckles, "I didn't say you could stop."

He waits until she resumes stroking him with the flat of her tongue, then he mimics her movements, licking her from clitoral hood down along to the sensitive skin behind her opening. He laps up his own semen intermingled with her arousal, making his wolf growl within him in lust and satisfaction, and it takes every ounce of control he has not to ram his cock back down her throat. He has marked her in nearly every way possible.

She shivers with the contact. His movements are gentle and light, enough to tease but no more. He does it again and again until she shakes with need above him.

"Please," she breathes.

"If you want more, Isabella, then you have to give more," he instructs.

So she maneuvers her hands so she can grasp the base of his penis with her fist, and she starts pumping. "Like this?" she asks. The rope around her wrists limits her movements, but she does what she can.

He answers with a pleased, "Mmm. Then you've earned this." He slips a finger inside her and caresses gently. Her breath leaves her body in a soft woosh and she momentarily stops moving her hand. Jacob stops moving his as well, and she protests.

"Please don't stop."

He chuckles beneath her. "Then don't you stop either. See how this works?"

Bella redoubles her efforts. This time she adds her tongue as well. She is unable to manage movement with her hand and mouth simultaneously due to her bonds. Jacob hums in response and starts lapping gently at the tip of her clitoris, just barely making contact. She becomes deliciously frustrated with the tantalizing contact and finally takes him into her mouth, suckling at the head. He groans and draws her clitoris between his pursed lips.

Bella moans and increases her suction. Jacob does as well, and she can barely form a coherent thought. It takes every ounce of willpower she has in order to focus enough to pleasure him. Eventually she starts to twist her tongue over the swollen head of his cock up every upstroke. Jacob himself has to concentrate in order not to thrust into her willing mouth. He responds by flicking his tongue rapidly over the tip of her clitoris. The pleasure is too great. She is so close to her climax. Bella arches her back and tosses her head back, letting out a sensual whimper.

And he immediately stops all movement.

"Please, Jacob, please," she cries.

He tips his head back momentarily, and she nearly weeps from the loss of contact. "Greedy little thing, aren't you?"

She wants to grab him by his hair and move him back into place, but between her bonds and her position, she is powerless to make him do anything. And even if she was free, she isn't strong enough to move him when he doesn't want to be moved. So she just asks again. "I need to come, Jacob, please make me come."

And that was what he was waiting for. The pleading, desperate tone in her voice is exactly what his wolf wants to hear. She wants him as much as he wants her. So he sucks her clitoris back into his mouth, works the tip with his tongue, and tips his head to the side enough to give him room to maneuver two fingers deep into her dripping pussy. Within moments she is right on the edge again. He loves to take her there. Her grip on his cock is so tight that it might be painful on a lesser man, but to him it feels like sheer bliss. And even in the midst of her ecstasy, she remembers to take him back into her mouth. So he rewards her by gently, carefully raking his teeth against her clitoris.

And she explodes wildly above him, soaking him and bucking into his face.

A minute later, Jacob gently rolls her onto her back and turns to face her. He looks down at her. Her face is flushed, sweat cools on her skin, her hair is tangled around her, her eyes are glazed, and her breath comes in slow pants. She looks absolutely beautiful. "Hello, gorgeous," his voice a low rumble in his chest. His wolf is inordinately pleased, and has settled enough that the man speaks by himself. He unties the cord from the headboard but leaves her wrists bound together. As he slides down toward her, she loops her arms around his neck and tugs down. She blinks up at him and smiles slowly.

"Hey yourself." Her eyes are rich and warm. "Look, now I've got you."

He grins down at her. "You've always had me, Bella. Actually, you couldn't get rid of me if you tried."

He nuzzles his nose with hers, and she hums in contentment. She asks him, "Where'd the wolf go? I don't hear him in your voice just now."

He moves over to brush his nose against her cheeks, her jawline, and the crook of her neck. "You calmed him, baby, with your beautiful body."

She tilts her hips up at him, bringing his hard cock in contact with her core. "Hmm. Doesn't feel so calm, Jacob. Feels like you need more."

Her movement against him, wet and hot, brings his Alpha back to the surface. After all, her treatment of him with her tongue and hands only inflamed him without granting him another release. "My appetite for you is endless, Isabella," he whispers against her skin.

"Mmm," she bites her lip and twists her hips against him, "There's my wolf." With what little movement she can manage, she runs her fingers through his hair, and he purrs in response. She giggles, "Or maybe you're just a puppy."

He laughs and flips them over so she lays on top of him and grasps her by her ass. "Is that what this feels like?" He positions himself and slides her onto his cock. They both moan at the sensation of him filling her completely, and he holds still to enjoy her body sheathing his. "You feel so good," he whispers, this time in the voice of the man alone. The wolf has had a chance to fuck his mate, hard and fast, but the man still wants to make love. He wages an internal battle with his other half for dominance. "I can't get enough of you."

She laughs, and the rippling effects on his stiff length cause him to swell even further inside her. "I can tell, Jake. You're insatiable tonight."

"It's you," he groans. "This is what you do to me. I can't stop fucking you. I never want to stop. You're amazing. You feel so amazing."

He lifts her up and shoves her back onto him, but is limited by her arms trapped between his neck and the bed. So he sits up with her still wrapped around him and settled atop him. The shifting of their bodies causes delicious friction between them, and the new position drags her clitoris against his pubic bone. She arches her back and turns her hips to increase the contact, and he looks down at her breasts pushed toward him and his body disappearing into hers. His wolf wants to pound into her again, but the man wants to take it slow.

He compromises for a very slow, very hard fuck.

He lifts her high enough that he nearly pulls out of her entirely. She supports herself with her arms around his shoulders, bound hands twined through his hair. "You're mine," he growls, then pulls her down while he thrusts upward.

She gasps as he fills her and then holds her tightly against him. "I'm yours," she breathes.

He tugs her up again and looks her right in the eye, and their surroundings disappear. His lips turn upward just a touch and he yanks her back down. He feels her pleasure as his own and holds her body tightly to his, his forehead pressed to hers, noses touching, panting into each others' open mouths. "And I'm yours, Bella. Only yours." It has always been this way, and he only feels it more intensely now.

He draws her up again, staring at her lithe form nearly glowing in the moonlight. She is beautiful. He tugs her back and pumps up in a single, fluid motion. She fits around him perfectly, her core incredibly tight around his pulsing cock despite their multiple rounds of intimacy.

She arches her back further with the next deep thrust, and it brings her breasts into his line of sight. He can't resist, so he draws her left nipple deep into his mouth. He doesn't let go for the next several thrusts, rendering them a bit more shallow than the previous ones, but he can tell from her cries, from the blissful expression on her face, and from the echoes of her pleasure reverberating in his own form that the additional stimulation has raised her to new heights of ecstasy. She is just on the cusp of another orgasm.

He moves carefully with her, trying to hold her in that perfect state for as long as possible. He carefully bites down on one nipple, then switches to the other with the next thrust. He laps at her breasts with the flat of his tongue and he grinds her against him, and he eyes the mark on her breast.

Her nails dig into the back of his neck. Her sharp points only enflame his lust further. The wolf rises to the surface again. "Isabella," he growls, and pulls her hips as close as possible. The change in angle hits something deep within her, and the sound of his voice pushes her to the very precipice. She grabs at his scalp and curls her body against his, burying her face into his shoulder. His skin is soft and smooth against her lips, and she cannot resist tasting the salt from his sweat.

Her tongue on his skin, her cunt on his cock, her nails in his flesh, her shaking pleasure against him all drive him wild. "Harder," he snarls. "Mark me..." He pants in between thrusts. "I want... everyone... to know... I'm yours."

She whimpers in response and rides him harder. Her first response is to kiss him breathless, so she gives in to the urge, attacking his lips with her own. Their tongues tangle, lips swollen nearly to the point of bruising, and she finally gives in to the urge to sink her teeth into his plump bottom lip. He groans and bucks up into her.

The slight change in force and his desperation for her tip her over the edge. She starts to convulse in a wracking orgasm, her tight channel contracting more and more tightly on him. He pulls her down against him as she rides out the waves, which brings her lips back in contact with his clavicle. She gives in to his desire and bites down hard enough to break the skin.

Jacob throws back his head and howls his rapture. When she finally relaxes her teeth, he shoves her onto her back without breaking their connection below. He pounds her into the mattress beneath them.

He wants to tell her. He wants her to know just what she means to him. The beast in him can be tamed only by this woman. The man in him has loved her for his whole life, and will never love another. His body's needs can be sated only by her own. "Isabella," he growls, barely coherent. It is all he can manage. Her name, a mantra. "Bella," harsh and low, as he strokes within her. "Isabella..." he groans again, pausing deep within her as another shaking wave takes over her form, relishing the sensation of her sweet pussy clenching down on his hard cock, her body stretched taut beneath him, her orgasm continuing in waves. "I love you," he pants.

He kisses her in between thrusts, in between her name falling from his lips. He tells her with his touch and his soft mouth on hers everything he cannot put into words.

She is everything. She is all that he wants, all that he needs wrapped up into a perfect form, made just for him.

And when she chokes out his name, her own all encompassing love for him wrapped up in that one word, he stiffens, slams in as far as he can go, and comes inside her, hot ropes of semen bathing her cervix again and again. He sees stars, and she sees only him.

Minutes later, they recover. Somehow he had managed to roll them so that she lays curled on his chest, arms still bound behind his neck. He gently slips out and unties the cord around her wrists, kissing the early bruising tenderly. She strokes her freed fingers gently along the spot she had bitten his shoulder.

He pulls the comforter around them to prevent her from getting chilled. "I wish it would stay. I wish I could carry your mark on me," he murmurs into her hair.

Just before she drifts off to sleep, she answers softly, "It's okay, Jacob. I'm yours, and you're mine, and we both know it. That's all that matters."

X-x-x-x-X


	10. Chapter 9

X-x-x-x-X  
Christmas Eve  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob rouses Bella from the bed in Sam's guest bedroom just in time to get her back into her own bed before Charlie gets home. She is too groggy to hold much of a conversation, and she falls back to sleep to the sensation of feather light kisses on her face. She sleeps dreamlessly and heavily in her own bed. She doesn't notice when Charlie's cruiser pulls up the drive, nor when he slams the front door shut. She doesn't wake up again until ten am, when Jacob slides her window open. She wakes up the same way she fell asleep: to Jacob's gentle kisses across her face. When he gently ties a couple of thick leather bracelets around her wrists to cover her bruises, she is so glad that he thought of it. If left to her own devices, she would have just tried to keep her long sleeves down as far as they would go. It probably would have worked for a little bit, but there is a high likelihood that her sleeves would have rolled up at some point, and had Charlie seen, she never would have been able to look him in the eye again.

She flushes thinking about the night before. If anyone other than Jacob ever tried to tie her down, her gut reaction would have inevitably have been terror. But as out of control as he seemed, she trusted him implicitly. Jacob is the most devoted creature she has ever met, and the most loving. Having his desire, his lust, his focus solely on her, is intensely arousing. He was positively wild last night. She was a little frightened, truth be told, especially when he exploded into his wolf in Sam's living room and pulled off her panties with his sharp teeth. But the little fear she had was wholly overwhelmed by the desire to submit to him. The result of her submission was a passion as pure and consuming as fire.

But she still wants to know what set him off, or more accurately, what set his wolf off.

She removes her new leather cuffs long enough to shower, leaving her charm bracelets on her dresser, then pads downstairs to toast an English muffin. For the first time in a long time, she has the day to herself. Jacob has patrol, Charlie will probably be asleep for hours after his night shift, Leah is spending the day with her cousin, and Rachel, Rebecca, Solomon and Billy are with the Littleseas. Connie and Kevin, Collin's parents, were nice enough to invite her and Charlie for Christmas Eve dinner, but they won't go over until Charlie wakes up. Bella offered to make brownies to contribute to dessert, but they refused to let her make anything else, so after stirring the batter and popping two trays in the oven, she doesn't have much left to do.

She calls Renee while the smell of chocolate starts to waft through the house. She had been hoping that Renee would come visit for the holiday, but Phil had surprised her with a trip to New Orleans for Christmas. At one point, she would have gotten very depressed at her mother's continuing absence from her life, but Bella had long ago learned to expect this from Renee. This season, it's hard to be depressed about not seeing one member of her family when she feels like she has gained a second father in Billy, a sister in Rachel, and a giant extended family in the pack.

And what Renee lacks in presence, she makes up for in excitement and enthusiasm over the phone. Bella considers telling her mother about Edward's money, but she doesn't know how to begin. Jacob knows, of course, but he didn't exactly react well to the news, and when he returned to find her late in the evening, talking about anything at all was off the agenda. She listens to Renee's happy chatter, and before she knows it, two hours have gone by. Bella curls up on the couch with a mug of spiced chocolate and a good book, and before she knows it has drifted off to sleep.

She wakes up in the early afternoon to her father bending over her and examining her new leather cuffs.

"Sorry, Bells. Didn't mean to wake you up. What are these?"

She blushes furiously and stammers, "Christmas presents from Jake."

"They're real good looking. He really likes to give you bracelets, huh?" He looks at her quizzically, clearly trying to figure out why she is bright red with embarrassment.

"Yeah. I guess he figures that jewelry is a way to a girl's heart," she says lamely. Charlie just looks confused. Bella has never struck him as the sort to want to adorn herself with extra jewelry. Edward's mother's ring looked huge and gaudy on her hand, and he knew Bella herself didn't actually like the style. She stammers, "These were handmade by Seth. He's awfully talented, isn't he?"

At that, Charlie brightens. "Oh yeah, kid's a true artist when he works with leather." He straightens. "Want some pizza? I put one in the oven and it should be coming out around now." She follows him into the kitchen. He is quiet as they eat, but he fidgets. She knows what that means. He wants to say something, but isn't sure how to go about it. "So, about last night," he begins. Bella freezes mid-bite. Oh god. Did he somehow see under her bracelets? Does he know what she and Jacob did the night before? "Jake seemed pretty riled up about Cullen's money. Did you guys talk after?"

Bella relaxes visibly and swallows. Thank goodness. "No, we didn't."

"Have you thought about it?"

She picks at her napkin. "No, I've sort of been avoiding thinking about it. That kind of money makes me uncomfortable. Not as uncomfortable as it does Jake, obviously, but still..."

Charlie takes a deep breath. Any sort of serious conversation with his daughter is hopelessly awkward for him, but for months after she returned to live with him, he avoided asking the difficult questions, and look where that got him. His daughter became hopelessly entwined with a predator, and he nearly lost her. "You were ready to marry into that money, Bells," he says quietly.

She is startled by his bluntness, and her mouth drops open. She centers herself, admitting quietly, "I was ready to do a lot of stupid things, dad."

Charlie breaks into a smile. "Love is both blind and stupid, isn't it?"

"Not with Jake, though."

"No," he agrees. "Not with Jake. But about all that cash..."

"Carlisle suggested I give some of it to the tribe."

"Really?" he looks surprised.

Bella nods. "That's what set Jake off. He doesn't want to be a 'charity case', especially not with Edward's money."

Charlie looks thoughtful. "He's a proud young man. With good reason. But maybe flying out the window and crushing his dad's phone was a bit of an overreaction. On the bright side, you can now afford to buy Billy a new one." He says it so dryly that it takes Bella several seconds to stop and laugh. Charlie stands to put his plate in the sink. "Just think about it, Bella. That money is yours whether you want it or not, whether Jake wants you to have it or not. There's no need to be extravagant with it, which is a lesson maybe someone should teach the Cullens, by the way. They do a pretty piss poor job of blending in, don't they? But anyway, that kind of resource can open all kinds of doors to you, Bells. Don't close them all before you realize what's on the other side of them, okay?"

Charlie steals a brownie, claiming that if he waits until they bring them to the Littleseas, they will be gone before he gets a chance to have one, and goes upstairs to change out of his pajamas.

Bella sits at the kitchen table, staring at her pizza and contemplating $133.4 million. It's more money than she can fathom. What should she do with it? As much as Jacob hates the idea, she can't help but think that Carlisle's suggestion is a good one. Even just a fraction of the money would make a big difference to the tribe. Even if they deny that it's true, Bella knows she owes the pack her life multiple times over, and they have sacrificed so much for her. Could she find a way to pay them back now? At least in part?

Soon, she and Charlie head to the Littlesea household. Rachel pulls Bella into a signature Black family bear hug. Bella greets Rebecca and Solomon with a smile and a wave and suddenly realizes she has no idea where the visitors think Jacob and Paul have gone on Christmas Eve. She whispers the question into Rachel's ear and learns that the pack helped obtain Christmas gifts for the children on the reservation, and that there is a giveaway at the tribal center that Paul and Jacob are supposedly staffing. The pack actually did organize the event, but it ended at noon and was staffed entirely by Sue and Leah.

Bella offers to help complete dinner preparations, but is shooed out of the kitchen by Connie. She joins Rachel and Rebecca in the family room, where they claim to have been banished for disrupting her flow. Solomon, however, is quickly retained for his culinary talents.

Rebecca turns to Bella and says, "So you've got to give me the real skinny about this love triangle my sister seems to have gotten herself into. She tells me that she's 'friends' with Paul and dating Trevor, but I don't believe it for a second."

Bella stammers, "Uh, I guess it's complicated?"

Rachel laughs at them and turns back to her Rebecca. "Leave the poor girl alone."

But Rebecca has no intention of letting up. "So Paul turns out to be this total stud now, but at least looking at his picture, Trevor seems like a serious hottie himself. But Paul looks at my sister like she's the only person in the room. On the planet, for that matter. And she tries to tell me he's seeing someone else. There's no way! What's really going on?" Her eyes twinkle as she asks.

Rachel looks a little chagrined. Paul is seeing Elle at her behest, and by all accounts they're getting along well. As friends, at least. But he does still look at her like she's the only girl in the world. Bella looks to Rachel, unsure what to tell Rebecca. Rachel sighs and reiterates, "Look, I met Paul after I met Trevor. Truth be told, had I met Paul first, we might be dating right now. High school student and all. But I didn't. So I told Paul we'd be friends, and I'm seeing Trevor. And Trevor is sort of amazing. That's the story."

Rebecca still doesn't seem convinced, so Bella nods. What Rachel said wasn't exactly a complete story, but none of it is untrue. "That is what happened. Paul would even say it's true if you asked. Except I don't think he knows you think you'd be dating him if it weren't for Trevor." Bella eyes Rachel.

Rachel exclaims, "Oh lord, please, no one tell him I said that!"

Rebecca still pushes. "But why is Paul in your apartment every weekend? Doesn't your boyfriend think that's weird?"

Bella has been wondering that herself. "They don't run into each other," Rachel explains, "since Trevor works all weekend long."

Rebecca narrows her eyes. "So you see Trevor during the week and Paul on the weekend?"

"Well, yes," Rachel admits.

"So you just have two boyfriends!"

"No, I don't!" Rachel protests. "I told you, I've never kissed Paul, and he knows we're not together that way."

More gently, Rebecca says, "But he's in love with you. I've only known him for two days, and even I know he's in love with you. Right, Bella?" Bella doesn't know how to answer, but neither sister is looking at her anyway. Rebecca doesn't wait for an answer. She covers her sister's hand with her own. "You're leading him on, Rach. You don't mean to, and you're trying not to hurt him. But in the long run, you're gonna hurt him worse. Don't you see? If you don't want him that way, it'd be so much less cruel to just cut him loose now. It's gotta kill him to know you're with another guy, but in the long run, he'll get over it if he understands he doesn't have a shot with you. This way, it's like you're keeping him in your back pocket just in case. It's not fair to him, sweetie. Let him go," she admonishes.

Solomon calls Rebecca into the kitchen, and Rachel turns to Bella with a stricken look on her face. "Is she right, Bella? Am I just being cruel?"

"I don't know. I really don't know."

"He's supposed to be whatever I need, right? If I want another brother, he's supposed to be that. If I want a friend, that's what I get. But she's right. He's kind of infatuated with me, I can see it. I know it. Maybe even in love with me, in a way. Does that mean I want him to be that way?"

Bella has no real answers. "With the imprint, who knows how it really works? I mean, look at Quil. His relationship with Claire is totally familial right now, and that is, hands down, the only appropriate relationship to have with a little girl. But what about when she turns, say, twelve, old enough to have a great big crush on him, but for it still to be totally inappropriate? What's the imprint going to make him do, crush right back since it's what she wants, or hold her at arm's length, which will hurt her, but be better for her? Nobody knows. Or how about Sam. I've talked to Leah and Jacob about him. He still loves Leah underneath his imprint on Emily. It's there, it's just gotten buried. But it's not like it disappeared. So if Paul is infatuated with you, how much is due to the imprint and how much is due Paul's own nature? He's never had a female friend before. Maybe it's the only way he knows to relate a beautiful woman. Normally he'd just lust after you, but maybe the imprint magnified that into something that looks like love."

Rachel whispers, "If it looks like love, sounds like love, acts like love, but comes from something so mystical, so foreign, so inhuman, what is it really? It is more real or less real?"

"Can you see yourself with him? In a romantic relationship?"

Rachel shuts her eyes tightly. She is quiet. When she finally opens her eyes, there are tears in them. "Yeah, Bella. I can. Maybe Becca's right. Maybe I've just been stringing him along. I wasn't trying to, I swear."

Bella reaches for Rachel's hands. "Of course not. You know it hurts him to be away from you, so you spend time with him. That's not cruel. You're trying to do the right thing. I know you are."

"But the more I'm with him, the closer we get, and the more I like being with him."

"Are you falling for him, Rachel?"

"I don't know, Bella. I can't tell anymore," Rachel whispers.

"What about Trevor?" Bella asks gently.

Rachel gets a genuine smile on her face thinking of Trevor. "Yeah, Bella. I already fell for him. It's not just the superficial stuff. At first, it was attraction, charm, fun. He's sexy, you know? And smart. But now... Now I really know him. He's a good person, Bella. A really good person. He works crazy hard to take care of his little sister. She's all he has left after their parents died, besides an aunt and a cousin. He adores her. And I admire that. He isn't pushy, he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He doesn't deserve me splitting my heart between him and another guy. Not any more than Paul does."

"Are you in love with both of them? I've been there, Rachel," Bella reminds her. "I know just how possible it is to love two men."

Rachel doesn't reply. But the tear shining in her eye rolls down her cheek. "I was trying to give Paul a chance to get out there and find someone else. See if he could really love someone else. I don't want him to be stuck with me forever against his will. But I think a part of me is being selfish about it. A tiny piece of me, or maybe not so tiny, wants him to stay stuck on me. Maybe it's some kind of petty desire to be wanted by an attractive guy, maybe it's an honorable desire to do the right thing for the person they say is my soulmate. And unless I get rid of that, unless I really, truly, honestly let him go, if the imprint works like they say it does, he doesn't get a choice. If a part of me wants him to want me, he probably will. And that's not fair to him." She takes a deep breath. "I have to make a choice. A real one this time. Not this halfway bullshit I was fooling myself with. I have to choose. I need to either be with him, really be with him, or really let him go."

They are interrupted by Collin's head poking around the doorjamb. "Hey, guys?" He looks sheepish. "They're gonna be here soon. Jake and Paul. I hear them coming up the road."

"Thanks, Collin," Bella says. Rachel sniffs and coughs to cover up her emotion. "Can you, uh, keep this conversation to yourself for a bit?"

Collin nods and looks at the floor. "I'll do my best, but you know how the brain thing works..."

Rachel smiles at him. "I appreciate it."

X-x-x-x-X  
Earlier that morning  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob leaves Bella's bedroom reluctantly just before Charlie gets home. The weak morning sun is more than adequate to reveal the distinctive bruising on her wrists. He strokes them gently with the pads of his fingers before climbing into the Rabbit and driving home. She was so worn out that she barely woke up for the trip between Sam's house and her father's; he isn't certain she even realized where she was.

Jacob is mortified with his own actions. Although she definitely didn't complain at all the night before, he knows just how close he came to completely losing control. He still isn't certain what happened. It all started when he saw Jasmine. The only time he has ever before felt that sort of anger is when faced by a vampire, and whatever else Jasmine is, a vampire she is not. But even the thought of her makes his wolf growl with irritation.

What's wrong with him? He remembers her from his childhood. She wasn't just a girl with whom he went to school. She was a friend. He has fuzzy memories of her and her girlfriends joining him, Embry, and Quil at recess. She was always nice to him. So why does the very thought of her cause an uncomfortable knot in his stomach?

It probably doesn't matter. She will be easy enough to avoid during her short trip to Washington, and Jacob will be sure to have Bella at his side if he goes to the Clearwaters' or Fullers' homes. He wants to spend every spare second he can with Bella anyway. She calms him, centers him, and was exactly what his wolf needed last night.

And what a night it was. As appalled as he is by himself, he can't help but start to get hard thinking about Bella's response to his domination of her. Her body, soft and willing beneath his, was perfection. At first she was confused by his feral air, but soon she was just as aroused as he was. It only reinforces his belief that Bella was made for him. She loved every second of their passionate encounter, of that he is sure. He never would have proceeded, despite how desperate he was for her, if she didn't like what he was doing with her.

On the other hand, if Charlie Swan sees the marks on her wrists, the Chief of Police will shoot first and ask questions later.

Jacob drives home and manages a quick shower before heading out for patrol. Thankfully, he shares the pack mind with only Brady for the time being, and he is both polite enough not to mention Jacob's frenzied need of Bella the night before, although Jacob's attempts not to think about his encounter with Bella are only another form of thinking about her. Again, Jacob wonders what's wrong with him. He normally has much better control over the thoughts that filter through to his pack. It has been this way since he took over Alpha. Prior to that time, his mind was an open book, and his packmates harassed him mercilessly about his inability to think about anything other than Bella. Paul would try to plant images of other naked girls in his mind, but that only resulted in Jacob imagining Bella naked. Quil tried to get him interested in a few other girls that supposedly had crushes on him, but Jacob neither believed Quil nor cared. There was only one girl he wanted.

But today, he feels himself slipping back into his old patterns. The only way he can manage not to replay his encounter with Bella is to think about her in other ways. So he concentrates on the curve of her lips when she smiles (but an image of her lips surrounding his cock slips through), or the way her delicate fingers look encompassed by his large hands (but that makes him think about her fingers unbuttoning her jeans and sliding them down her legs for him the night before), or the way her thick hair shines when she leaves it down (but then he remembers what it felt like to have her hair brushing against his legs when she was draped over him as they pleasured each other just a few hours ago).

Brady tries to engage him in a discussion about the Miami Heat's game the night before against the Phoenix Suns, two teams that neither of them cares about in the least, to mask Jacob's thoughts. It doesn't work at all.

When Seth phases in, Jacob doesn't bother to phase out with him to ask for his assistance. There simply isn't any point. He has no control over his train of thought today, and once he asks Seth, the entire pack will know why anyway. Paul phases in at the same moment.

_Do you have any more of those thick leather bracelets ready to sell?_ Jacob asks.

Seth answers easily, _Yeah, a few._

_Any matching sets? Like, for a girl?_

_Oh, do you need a present for one of your sisters? _

_Uh, no. For Bella._ And that's all it takes. Suddenly, his packmates get an intimate vision of Bella tied to Sam's kitchen table as Jacob pounds into her from behind. Then they see the resulting bruising patterns.

_Jesus, Jake! exclaims Paul, admiration audible in his voice. She sure is a kinky little thing, ain't she?_

_Shut up!_

_Dude, I knew you were going to get her last night, but damn._ Seth answers uncomfortably.

Jacob answers, _Well, now you all know. Something came over me last night and I just about lost it. But if Charlie sees what I did to her wrists..._

Paul laughs at this._ You'll just die. Super healing powers and all. Chief Swan will shoot off your nuts before he puts a couple bullets in your brain._

_So I need something to cover up her wrists. I can either get some retro sweatbands or a couple of your bracelets for her. At least your bracelets will look like they could be a Christmas gift or something. And I need them quick._

Seth mentally scrolls though the leather cuffs he has ready. _Okay, I don't have two of the same, but there's a couple that would fit her little wrists._ He shows them images. _There's one with a detail of wolves under the moon, and another with a floral pattern. The floral one has a turquoise stain._

_Oh, dude, I think you may have just saved my ass. _

They head to Seth's house to pick up the bracelets. Jacob ties them around his neck so he can carry them to Bella, and Paul teases him when he sees Jacob in Seth's mind. _A wolf wearing a necklace. You look real pretty, Jake._

Jacob huffs and heads to Bella's house, arriving only minutes later. Thankfully, he manages to catch her before she has gotten out of bed. Charlie is already asleep after his night shift, and there is little chance that Charlie came into her room while she was asleep to see her bruising. He wakes her gently with kisses and ties the bracelets on her wrists before leaving again for patrol. He leaves Paul and Brady to patrol locally, while he and Seth head out for a wider loop.

Jacob asks Seth, _What do you sell those for, about $50 a pop?_

_Don't worry about it, Jake. They're yours._

Jake refuses. _I can't just take them. You worked hard on them. Besides, I made some cash working on cars and restoring that motorcycle. I have to pay you what you're owed._

Brady chimes in, _Plus he's got a sugar mama now!_

Jacob growls. Edward Cullen's money makes him as irritated as Jasmine does.

_What's going on with you, man? _Paul asks.

Seth agrees. _Yeah, right. After all that leech put her through, seems only fair that she should get some sort of payback for it. A cool hundred mill may be a little much, but who better to go to? It's not like the Cullens need more money. _

_Maybe,_ Jacob admits reluctantly. _It's just... it's my job to provide for her. Not his. I want him and everything he left behind to be out of our lives forever. _

_Don't let Leah or Rachel hear you,_ Paul laughs. _Or Bella for that matter. They'll just say you're spouting a bunch of macho crap. _

Seth agrees with Paul. _She doesn't exactly want you to "provide for her", does she? She's going to college and everything. Hell, the way we're stuck here on the Rez, can't go to off to school, not much in the way of jobs, and we're always patrolling, so when are we supposed to work? With or without Edward's money, she'll probably be the one who brings home the bacon._

The Alpha male in Jacob is incensed. His thoughts aren't coherent enough to form sentences, but his brothers all know what he's thinking. Particularly when he replays Carlisle Cullen's suggestion that Bella donate some of her new money to the tribe. Jacob is blatantly offended at the notion of receiving charity, but his brothers see it differently.

_Dude, that's not a bad idea,_ Paul answers enthusiastically. _I mean, think about Sam. They barely cover their utilities and mortgage, let alone all the food we scarf down at their place, and that's even with him working weekends doing security. _

Seth adds, _We could pay Emily back for her grocery bill. Seriously. If he didn't have to patrol every day, he'd have a normal job. He'd have gone to college. Think of the career he gave up to do this. It would only be fair to compensate him for it._

_Yeah,_ Paul agrees. _Sam's putting in enough patrol hours to count for a full time job. The council could at least give him minimum wage for all the work he does, if only there was money for that._

Brady adds, _And it was the Cullens' fault we phased in the first place. What were they thinking coming back here? They knew about the last pack. It couldn't have been much of a stretch to think they'd trigger another wave of shifting. I had to drop out of basketball because of all the patrolling. Collin isn't playing football this year. Mrs. Ateara had to hire another clerk since Quil isn't around to help in the store as much. This has cost all of us all kinds of things. _

_And that's all Edward's fault,_ continues Seth. _If he hadn't gotten that James vamp up here to scare Bella, we would never have had to chase the redhead around, we would never have had to fight the newborn army, Bree wouldn't have come after Bella, and the Italians would never have come poking around. Bella wouldn't have been bitten once, let alone twice. You would never have gotten half your body crushed, Brady's legs would never have been broken, and my spine would have stayed intact. If the Cullens hadn't come back Leah would never had her life turned upside down. My dad would probably still be alive since we wouldn't have phased right in front of him. Emily wouldn't be scarred for life. _

Brady says, _And it's Christmas Eve. We'd be inside, being on vacation, having fun with our families, instead of running around out here. They kind of owe us._

Paul continues, _That fucker Cullen still owes us for all the crap he put us through. It's probably not even over. That's why Dr. Cullen keeps calling, right? And there was that trail from last night. _

_Okay,_ Jacob grudgingly has no arguments for any of this. He refocuses. _It's Bella's money, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have to follow up on that trail. _

They search in futility for any sign of the vampire who visited the abandoned Cullen mansion the night before, but it escaped cleanly in a car, leaving no more of a trail than Jacob already found. Seth and Jacob continue on toward Puget Sound to look for any other vampire activity.

Without the distraction of a good trail to follow, Jacob's thoughts soon drift back to the previous night.

Seth quietly asks, _What was that all about last night, Jake? Not the, um, sex part. The aggression. Why were you so wound up?_

_Something about your cousin set me off. I don't know what._

Brady questions, _Jasmine? She's cool, Jake._

_And she remembers you. She was hoping you might hang out during vacation. Catch up and all, _Seth adds. _She remembers you from school and thought it would be fun, especially now that she knows we're friends with you._

Just the thought of her sets his wolf on edge. _I don't think so. I don't know what it is about her, I'm sure she's a nice person, but I think it's a bad idea._ He tries to say it without growling. His reaction to her is instinctual and inexplicable. He shoves down the urge to race back to Bella.

Brady sounds uncomfortable. _Um, you might need to get used to her._

_Why? She's going home in a week and I don't have to see her again. If I see her again, my wolf is either going to attack her, or I'm going to end up taking out my frustrations on Bella again._

Brady gets a flash of a conversation from late the night before. _Because she might be moving in with us, Jake. I think she's staying._

_What?_ He skids to an abrupt stop. He has the absurd urge to race back to La Push and toss her off the reservation.

_Her folks just got transferred to Tokyo. They both work for the same company, they do something in finance that I don't really understand. She'd rather stay in California, but there's no one there for her to live with. She either moves to Japan, or she can come back to the Rez for a year and a half until college. _

_I didn't know that,_ Seth says, surprised.

Brady explains, _Yeah. I don't think I'm supposed to know yet. Her mom and my mom were talking about it in the kitchen last night. Jasmine was already asleep, and I'd never have heard them if it weren't for the wolf hearing._

_Shit._ Jacob can think of nothing else to say. His wolf is infuriated for absolutely no good reason. He deliberately starts running in the opposite direction away from the reservation.

Brady tries to placate Jacob. _I don't think she's decided. Maybe she'll want to go with them. Tokyo could be a cool place to live._

_Does she speak Japanese?_ Paul asks.

_Uh, no,_ answers Brady.

_I wonder if she'll want to stay with us instead?_ Seth asks. _Another girl in the house, and all. _

_You guys don't have a spare room, though,_ Brady answers. _Plus I don't think Aunt Meg felt comfortable asking your mom. She'll probably stay with us._

Jacob's stomach churns with nausea. He runs harder in a futile attempt to quell the sensation. _I'll just have to avoid her, then._

_She's your age, remember?_ Seth says quietly. _If she stays, you're bound to have most of your classes together._

_Goddammit!_ Jacob growls under his breath.

Seth presses, _I don't get it, Jake. What's the problem? She said you used to be really good friends._

_I don't know! We were friends, I think. We were little, though. I haven't seen her in, like, ten years. There is absolutely no conceivable reason I feel this way, but she feels like a threat. The only time I've ever felt this way just from seeing someone was when they were a fucking vampire._

_Yeah, that's not it,_ Brady answers.

_Obviously!_ Involuntarily, he replays the moment she reached out to touch his forearm. All of a sudden he felt arousal shooting through his body, landing in his groin, with simultaneous and opposing fury.

The flash of Jacob's memory triggers a corresponding memory in Paul. The first moment he looked into Rachel's eyes, and she became the center of his universe. The all encompassing, overwhelming, and wholly involuntary conviction that she was his and he was hers.

Seth interrupts Paul's memory. _Well, Jake clearly didn't imprint on Jasmine. _

Sarcastically, Jake replies, _Not unless she's my imprint, but what she really needs from me is to hate her for no reason and run off._

Paul laughs darkly, _To run off and fuck Bella until she can't walk straight, you mean._

_Yeah, right,_ Brady snorts. _She's already crushing hard on you, Jake. _

_We all saw it,_ Seth backs up Brady. _Leah told me she couldn't stop talking about you after you left._

Paul challenges, _And you might hate her for no reason, Jake, but she also turned you on._

_Yeah, but for Bella, only Bella,_ Jacob insists. _I had to have her. Jasmine touched me and I instantly had to have Bella, not Jasmine. It was so fucking weird!_ And they see in his open mind the truth of the statement.

_I was there, remember?_ Paul reminds him, the memory of Jacob striding into the living room wild-eyed bright in his mind. _When you stormed back into the house and grabbed her, I wasn't sure you were going to even make it to the garage. I thought you'd just rip off her pants on the front porch._

_At least you weren't in his brain!_ Seth complains.

_Dude, Sam's not going to appreciate your, uh, enthusiastic use of his kitchen table and spare bedroom,_ Paul snorts.

_Aw, we eat there!_ Seth whines.

_Shit. I have to go back and clean up. Your shorts are all over the living room,_ Jacob says to Seth.

Now Seth's voice turns serious. _I thought you weren't going to be able to phase back to human there for a second, Jake. I was really worried about Bella for a minute. _

Humiliated, Jacob answers miserably, _I know. The wolf has never been so out of control. He almost took over completely. It was crazy. I always want Bella, I always need her, the wolf does too, but not like last night. And just thinking about Jasmine makes that feeling rush back. I want to run to Bella's right now._

Paul snorts. _You always want to go to Bella's. You always want to screw Bella. I'd say the only time you don't is when you're unconscious, but hell, you guys fuck like bunnies in your dreams. It's ridiculous._

_But not like this! And definitely not like last night,_ Jacob protests._ Whatever. This isn't getting us anywhere. I'm just going to hope Jasmine wants to go to Tokyo, and then this won't be an issue anymore. _

_Good luck with that,_ Paul says, not entirely sarcastically.

Jacob attempts to refocus on the task at hand, but they run across no more vampire trails. The lack of a real distraction means that his brothers have to put up with his low grade lust for the rest of the shift, since Jacob focuses his thoughts on Bella to avoid thinking about Jasmine, the latter of which just results in escalating aggression. There is no sign of the mysterious visitor from the night before. Eventually they find a shelter under a huge fallen tree. Jacob needs to spirit walk to see if he can learn anything more, so Seth stays in wolf form next to him when he reverts to his human body, stretches out on the cold, damp ground, and sends his spirit to journey away.

_He rises high above the forest. In this form, he is acutely aware of every living thing. He recognizes the distinctive cries of hawks and falcons. The listens to the chittering of small rodents as they argue with each other over winter stores. He senses the warm heartbeats of a few slumbering bears. He feels where owls drowse perched safely in the trees. He watches a family of deer pick their way gracefully across slippery rocks to gain crossing over a stream. He floats higher and higher, but nothing in this forest disturbs its peace. _

_He speeds east and over Puget Sound. Seattle. What better place for a vampire to hide? The sounds of the city are overwhelming at first. So many human heartbeats. So many souls, all crowded together. Families surrounding Christmas trees, making meals, laughing, arguing. Parents chasing children, lovers coming together, lonely individuals walking the streets just to be surrounded by other beings. Jacob can sense each and every one of them. Sparks, warmth, the heat of life. And perhaps most fascinating of all, he senses a few dimming lights. Spirits fading from the world as he flies high above._

_And worst, cold, black voids. Black holes where life once resided. Vampires. Jacob counts seven. Two pairs and three lone vampires. He wonders what will he do if he finds someone being attacked. Can he do anything in this form? Should he? Here, in the city, he cannot conjure an animal attack as he did at Lake Cle Elum to distract Edward. And even if he could, should he? No one else is out here to protect the innocent from the savage thirst of the predator. Is it his job? He had considered this when Bella drove him away. If he couldn't protect her the way he wanted, at least he could protect other lives. The council of elders had actually discussed it upon his return from Vancouver, and they had unilaterally forbid the pack from extending the boundaries of their protection too far, worried that they would overextend themselves and leave the reservation unprotected. More importantly, they were not willing to put their own sons and daughter at further risk. Luckily, the vampires today are dormant. The sunlight has poked out through the clouds, temporarily driving them indoors. He scents each of them and rules all of them out as the culprit. None of them, at the moment, is a threat to any human. And they are all in a highly populated, urban area. His wolf would not be well suited to patrol the streets of Seattle._

Somewhat reluctantly, Jacob returns to his body. He and Seth return to the reservation. Before heading home, Jacob returns to Sam's house to clean up his mess, but with chagrin, realizes there is no way that his old Alpha will avoid knowing what happened in his home while he was gone.

X-x-x-x-X

Jacob has never been so eager to get inside his Aunt Connie's home. As he approaches the single story residence, he can feel her in there, his Bells. The churning in his gut begins to quell. They get closer, and he can hear her soft voice coming from inside. His jangling nerves still. He knows he is being rude when he sweeps right past his Uncle Kevin who greets them at the door, managing only an offhanded, "Hey," in greeting. She is just feet away. He can smell her soap, her shampoo, and the warm scent that is just her. She steps through the threshold of the family room door and everything is right in the world again.

Jacob pulls her up into his arms, lifting her off the floor and sighing audibly into her hair. Paul would make fun of him, but the urge to do the exact same thing to Rachel Black is strong. That is, until he looks into her eyes, and realizes they are just a little bit red. Paul's heart drops into his stomach.

But then Rachel gives him a warm little smile that reaches her eyes, and he relaxes. Connie announces that the patrolling wolves are just in time for Christmas Eve dinner, so he distracts himself with food to keep his twitchy hands away from Rachel. If she wants to hug him, she'll hug him. He always lets her initiate their physical contact, not pushing past her boundaries, and he can tell that tonight is not the night to try anything different.

Bella has a slightly difficult time eating her dinner since Jacob basically refuses to let go of her hand for the duration of the meal. His mood is not nearly as animalistic as it was the night before, but he is every bit as needy of her. Her touch is a necessity. Only skin on skin will do. Even the minute barrier of the fabric of her pants is too much, so his attempts to just put his hand on her knee don't last. He contemplates sliding his hand up the back of her shirt, but Charlie is sitting on Bella's other side, and there is no way the police officer won't notice. So he traps her left hand in his, rubbing his thumb in soft circles, and refuses to let go. Bella just smiles and enjoys the touch. It fills her even better than the wonderful meal Connie and Solomon prepared.

The Littleseas didn't bother with a tree, but they strung lights throughout their family room, living room, and dining room. After they finish eating, everyone starts drifting through the house. Jacob tugs Bella into his lap after he plops down into the recliner facing the fire. Bella watches curiously as Rachel and Paul slip into the living room by themselves. Their voices are low.

"What are they talking about, Jake?"

"Mmm? Who?" he asks distractedly as he runs his fingers through her thick, smooth hair. Who cares about what anyone else is doing? He has his Bells tucked up against him, and nothing else matters.

"Rachel and Paul, what are they talking about?"

"Uh," he focuses for a second. "She's asking him how he's doing, what it's like when he doesn't see her. He's telling her he's doing well."

"Is he? Doing well, I mean." Bella asks. She knows it is difficult for Paul to lie to Rachel, but he also wants to protect her. He would probably minimize any adverse effects of not being by her side.

The dreamy look on Jacob's face fades as he looks at Bella. "Well, yeah, he is. Since he sees her every week, the physical pain of separation has gotten pretty minimal. It's like he knows what to expect, and as long as he gets that, he does okay. And I think it helps that she's accepted him, at least partway. He's not so afraid she's going to leave him forever, you know? But deep down, I guess he'd rather not be in limbo. He's still jealous of Trevor, which is no surprise, and he'd much rather be, you know, involved with her." Bella chews at her bottom lip. Because after the conversation she just had with Rachel, perhaps she actually is about to leave him forever. "Why do you ask?" Jacob wants to know.

Later, she mouths soundlessly. She doesn't want Paul to hear that Rachel is rethinking the boundaries of their relationship. "Just wondering," she says out loud. She stares harder at Jacob himself. "And how about you? How are you doing?"

"Wonderful, with you right here." He tightens his grip around her and tucks her head under his chin. She listens to the strong, rhythmic sound of his heart. She hears how content he is and decides not to push it. They need to talk about what happened the night before, both with Edward's money and whatever happened after to set him off, but there isn't really any privacy here. So she enjoys his solid form against hers, the warmth of the fire eclipsed by the warmth of Jacob himself, the sound of her father and Billy chuckling together with Connie drifting in from the kitchen, and the soft snores of Solomon, stretched out on the couch, passed out with his head on Rebecca's lap, as Kevin and Collin amicably tend the flames leaping up into the chimney.

And later that night, after Charlie leaves for the station with a full belly and a warm hug, after Jacob drops off his family in his house, after Paul walks to his own home, calm and contented after getting a prolonged hug from Rachel on her front porch, Jacob takes Bella upstairs to her room. They have privacy, and they need to talk, but that can come later. What they have to communicate cannot be said in words.

This night is the opposite to the previous night in nearly every way, save one. Every kiss of his lips to hers, every touch of his fingers to her skin, every sweep of his tongue between her legs, every plunge of his sex into hers, is achingly gentle. His lovemaking his impossibly delicate as his wolf slumbers, dormant, inside him. But the constant, the true, is that each contact between them, whether with frenzied desperation or infinite tenderness, is filled with love.

X-x-x-x-X

Thanks to my beta, Babs81410 at JBNP.


	11. Chapter 10

X-x-x-x-X  
Christmas  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob rises early for patrol. Paul arrives shortly after he phases in, and they are grateful for an uneventful holiday. By today, Jacob has some semblance of control over his thoughts of Bella, although visions of creamy patches of skin break through from time to time. Paul is blessedly quiet, and Jacob is grateful. The rain is cold, but not driving, and their constant run and thick coats of fur keep them both amply warm until they get to turn over patrol to Embry and Jared.

By then it is late in the afternoon, late enough that both Embry and Jared were able to eat an early Christmas dinner with their families before they have to take over patrol. Jacob heads to his house where his family awaits him. Paul would prefer to spend the rest of the night at the Blacks' home, but he has neglected his father enough. They have a standing Christmas tradition to eat dinner in Forks' single Chinese restaurant, a surprisingly busy night for the only restaurant open on Christmas Day for miles, as well as a tradition to exchange gag gifts at said restaurant. So Paul eats General Tso's chicken, Beef and Broccoli, Lo Mein, around a dozen potstickers, and Mu Shu Pork for Christmas dinner. His father gives him an extra large dog collar and leash, saying he can give the other end to his "not-girlfriend-whatever-she-is Rachel."

Jacob and Bella exchange gifts in the early evening, directly after their meal. He gets a sensation of indigestion comparing the $133.4 million dollars Edward Cullen left her against the thirty eight dollars he spent on her gift. He carved a cover for a handmade album and painstakingly tried to write legible captions below each deliberately selected photograph. Each picture is of the two of them, many reproduced from the box of memorabilia of her that he keeps tucked into his closet, as well as a few gleaned from Charlie Swan, and a few more recently taken. He found himself unable to put simple, short captions below each photo, so instead of the neat, efficient labels he intended to write, every page became one picture with a story beneath it. His memories of her.

He thinks it looks cheap, but he poured his heart into it.

She thinks it's thoughtful and perfect, and tears spring to her eyes as she looks at their shared history through his eyes. She can't help but think that she doesn't deserve him and his lifelong devotion, and she finds herself mortified that she got him something as impersonal as a blowtorch. But his eyes light up like a child's when he unwraps the gift, and even Solomon looks over jealously, reassuring her that all men are pyromaniacs, and the only thing she might have given Jacob that he would have enjoyed more were illegal fireworks or lingerie. She blushes wildly enough that Solomon realizes that she did buy the latter, amusement twinkling in his eye.

Eventually, Charlie leaves for another night shift. He could have taken the week off around the holiday, he makes the schedule, after all, but his Christmas present to his deputies with small children is to spare them the graveyard shift.

After that, Jacob takes Bella home, promising to come back after an oddly timed pack meeting. It is the last night before multiple members of the pack are about to split off, and they need to update each other while they are all still in LaPush. Sam and Collin are going to leave for a spirit quest the next day, and Quil is going to visit Claire.

The pack arrives at Sam and Emily's house one by one. The couple has only arrived minutes ahead of them, rushing back from Christmas dinner with her family an hour and a half away at Neah Bay. Sam glares at Jacob as soon as he arrives. Jacob is torn between embarrassment and absurd male pride that he dominated his mate in this very spot. Low, softly enough that Emily can't hear, Sam places his hands on his hips and growls, "Do I need to bleach my kitchen table?"

"I cleaned up," Jacob sheepishly states, "and I'll pick up your comforter from the laundry when it opens again in a couple days."

"You should still bleach the table," Paul snickers behind him. "Or just burn it."

From the living room, Jared shouts, "At least Jake's getting some. You spent two months obsessing over Rachel's Christmas present like a girl, and what do you have to show for it?"

Jared is right. Paul struggled with the gift for weeks, absorbing the jabs from his brothers that his dick was involuting every time they caught him contemplating it. His real inclination was to weave her a traditional promise bracelet, but that would only make her uncomfortable. So he settled on the newest book from her favorite author and a bottle of lightly perfumed lotion. The latter is the sort of thing a brother could give to his sister, and he isn't planning on telling her that that he knows the warm sugar scent will blend perfectly with her own underlying musk to make an irresistible combination, or that he envisions her rubbing it into her naked skin. Sadly, his brothers are still privy to this thought and are ragging him about it. Their howls of laughter are, shockingly, stopped abruptly by none other than Leah Clearwater.

"Shut up, morons, you need new material. Same old jokes are getting dull. And most of you are whipped puppies just as bad as Paul here." Leah plops down on the floor, leaning against the wall.

Jacob takes the opportunity to start the meeting. "Okay, let's get this over with so we can get out of here. We all have better places to be right now. Quil, when are you getting back from your visit to Claire?"

"I'll be back in three days."

"Okay, you'll be on morning patrols with me when you get back. Paul and Brady, you're on nights. Embry and Seth, afternoons. Jared, you've got days with me until Quil gets back. We don't know exactly how long Sam and Collin will be gone, but we'll be prepared to do without either of them on patrols until school starts again."

They review what they know about the taxilit, the guardian spirits that can guide them through the spirit world. Jacob had spoken with his father, Old Quil, and two other elders, and tries to synthesize their tales with his own personal knowledge of his eagle. At first, the pack pays close attention, but the conversation wanders.

"Maybe you'll come back with some cool powers," Brady pipes up.

"Or maybe Collin's spirit guide will be a molerat," Quil quips.

"Squirrel," Embry suggests.

"Skunk," Paul calls out to a chorus of laughing agreement.

Leah pulls Jacob aside while their brothers come up with equally ridiculous possibilities for Sam. Quietly, she says, "I'll be gone too, if that's okay. You didn't have me on the schedule, right?"

"Nope," he reassures her. "My Christmas present to you, like I said before. Where are you going?"

"Seattle. Leaving tomorrow," she answers vaguely and shoves her hands into her pockets.

"What's in Seattle?" Embry asks guilelessly.

"A wedding." Leah answers simply. "Here's where I'm staying if you need me for anything, and I've got my phone." She hands over a slip of paper naming the W Hotel and the name under which the reservation was made. Not her name.

Jacob nods and stuffs it in his pocket, smiling at Leah. "Have a good time," he says. He knows a little about Leah's new boyfriend from what Bella has told him. More importantly, he also sees how light her step has become, how she smiles more easily, and how her eyes shine more brightly. It might be due to the space he gives her away from Sam, it might be going to school, it might be her new friends, or it might be this guy. Who knows if it's serious or not, but Leah sure seems to be having fun.

Emily calls brightly from the kitchen, "Do we get to meet him when you come back?"

Collin asks, "Meet who?"

Brady answers, "Brad. The new boyfriend. It's his cousin that's getting married, right? Jasmine's dying to get a look at him almost as much as Emily is. Seth, you seen this guy yet?"

Seth answers, "No, not yet", but his eyes aren't on Leah or Brady. He is looking at Sam.

Quil plunges into the conversation with, "Well, it's a wedding, right? Then I guess Brad's gonna get lucky this week. Girls get totally horny at weddings. Gonna show him more of that lingerie you bought with Bella?" He waggles his eyebrows at her lasciviously.

Sam has gone suspiciously still, and he frowns intently at a blank spot on the wall. But he doesn't do anything else, so Leah just laughs uncomfortably as Emily gently reprimands Quil. If his words were directed at anyone else, his comments would be followed by one upmanship by his brothers, but everyone else is looking between Sam and Leah. Emily, seeing both an opportunity to extract Leah from an awkward conversation as well as the chance to reconnect with her, invites Leah to join her in the kitchen for a cup of tea away from the boys. "C'mon, I want to hear all about this new boyfriend of yours. Leave all the testosterone out there and come have some girl talk with me."

Leah freezes for a second like a deer in the headlights before her face falls into an expression which looks nearly identical to Sam's. Does Emily really think that just because Leah has started to date again, she suddenly wants to be best friends with the woman engaged to her own ex fiance? She bites back a sharp retort, takes the opportunity to wish them all a rather stilted Merry Christmas and slips out the front door.

Sam's hard gaze shifts from the wall to the spot that Leah just vacated. His pack brothers can hear his heart slam in his chest in an accelerated rhythm. Sam and Jacob had nearly come to blows two months ago after Leah and Bella were attacked during their commute from Peninsula. He was enraged that even after another brush with death, Jacob continued to let her patrol alone on Fridays. He insisted upon quitting his security shift on Friday to patrol with her unless Jacob pulled another wolf out of class. Jacob had refused, albeit reluctantly, deferring to Leah's desire to keep her brothers in school and Sam out of her head. Emily herself had pleaded with Sam not to drop any hours at work, as they were barely able to pay their bills and had nothing to spare. In Sam's mind, Jacob heard Sam darkly speculating that she just didn't want him alone with the woman he still loved. His imprint did not allow him to yell the accusation at her. In fact, the imprint didn't even allow the thought to be fully and consciously articulated in Sam's own mind. But Jacob felt it there, underneath everything else, nonetheless.

As a result, Leah and Sam haven't been on patrol together for months, and she avoids him as much as she can. But the fact is that their community is a small one. Of course Sam had heard that Leah started dating. He had willfully ignored the news and believed the dates to be casual. But he had been phased in with Seth a couple times, and once Seth let slip that Leah was in an exclusive relationship now. He wasn't one to tattle on his sister, and Seth knew that Leah valued her privacy from Sam above nearly everything else, but he slipped. For a moment, just one moment, Sam let his mental defenses fall. In Sam's mind, Seth saw black jealously roiling together with terrible guilt, guilt for what he had done to Leah, and guilt to Emily for still having any feelings left for Leah. And at the center, the same open, raw love that Sam had rediscovered the night he thought Edward Cullen had killed his Lee Lee. _She was supposed to be his. _

Sam holds himself still for all of three seconds before following Leah outside. He tries to hold his voice down, but there is no point. Everyone except Emily can hear. The pack inside doesn't bother to talk amongst ourselves in a halfhearted attempt not to hear. They blatantly eavesdrop.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asks, his voice overly steady in contrast to his words.

Leah stops walking but doesn't turn around. "Going home." She struggles to keep her voice as smooth as his.

"Not that. What are you doing going away with some random guy for a week?" This time he can't keep his voice calm.

"Excuse me?" Her voice drips acid.

Sam takes a deep breath and tries again. "Are you being safe?"

She turns around slowly. She spits out every word, fire in her eyes. "Tell me you're not asking me if I fuck bareback, Sam."

Sam breathes heavily and squeezes his eyes shut. He realizes too late what that sounded like. "I... I didn't mean it that way, Lee Lee."

"Don't. Call. Me. That."

"I just... I just..." He balls his hands into fists at his sides. "You're going to hurt him, Leah."

She laughs darkly. "He hasn't been complaining so far."

"He's not your imprint, so what are you doing with him?"

Her eyes narrow. "It's _a_ wedding, not _my_ wedding, Sam."

He stutters, "But this is... this Saturday..."

She hisses, "It's not _our_ wedding, so it doesn't concern you."

"So it's... casual... then?" He has trouble getting the words out.

"Again I ask, how is that any of your business?" Her voice is starting to rise. Soon Emily will be able to hear them arguing.

He steps toward her, and she steps back. "This isn't you, Leah. A hotel room with a guy you hardly know. And now? Why does it have to be now?"

Now the fury in her voice makes it loud enough that Emily does hear. "Who says I hardly know him? And who cares if I've talked to him once or a thousand times? It's none of your goddamn business! What were you going to do this weekend, invite me to your house for dinner or something? Leave me the fuck alone!"

Jacob steps forward to stop the confrontation outside, but Seth beats him to it, rushing out the front door to place himself between his sister and her ex-fiance. Emily peers at them through the front window. "C'mon, sis. I'm gonna help you pack." He drags her away, and Emily steps outside to take Sam's hand. As soon as she is able to pull him inside, the remaining wolves get out as fast as they can.

Jacob heads straight to Bella's. He finds her freshly showered, damp hair curling down her back, sweet smelling and soft. She sits on her bed reading and puts down her book, smiling at him as he slides open the window and climbs in. "Could've used the front door, Jake."

He grins at her. "But this is tradition."

He kisses her gently before taking a quick shower, returns clad in a pair of flannel boxers, and tucks himself around her in bed. "So, Leah's going on a romantic vacation, huh?" Jacob begins.

She pulls back to look at him. "Is that what she said?"

"No," he shakes his head. "But a date for a wedding, staying at a fancy hotel, and she's gonna be gone for days? Didn't take a genius to put two and two together."

"So does everybody know now? That she's seeing Brad?"

He sighs and tosses her arm over his eyes. "Yup."

"So why the long face? Was she all bitchy tonight or something?"

"No, no. Not at all. She's great. Got the guys to stop ragging on Paul about Rachel, even."

Bella frowns. "I'd have thought the guys would be happy about the shiny, new, nice Leah."

"Most of them are."

"Oh," Bella understands. "But not Sam."

"Not Sam," his voice is hard and bitter, and she thinks she hears him swear under his breath.

"Because he's still in love with her, right?"

Jacob lowers his arm and looks at Bella. "Why do you say that?"

Bella shrugs. She doesn't want to break Leah's confidence, but this is Jacob. She isn't holding anything back from Jacob if she can help it. "Leah told me."

"She did?" His eyes are big and round.

"Do you think she's right? Sam never said as much to her, or anything, but she said it resurfaced when she joined your pack and disappeared out of his mind all of a sudden. When he thought she was dead. Do you think that's true?"

"That he loves Leah?" Bella nods in response. Jacob clears his throat and shifts to rest his head in the crook of her shoulder. "Well, yeah. I mean, as far as I can tell, he never stopped. It was more like..." Jacob pauses to think of the right words, "more like the imprint rolled over his feelings for Leah like a steamroller. The top layer is all about Emily, right? But the layer underneath, the part of him that loves Leah, it's still there. It's just buried under the imprinting shit."

"And the guilt," Bella adds.

"Right. The guilt about what he did to Emily's face. That stuff got piled up over the real feelings he had for Leah. Still has for Leah. He was just really good at ignoring it. Went out of his way to ignore it, actually," he says with a deep frown.

Bella adds, "But jealousy is harder to ignore sometimes."

Jacob smiles grimly. "Don't I know it," he mutters under his breath. "He should have tried harder."

She hears him and strokes his fingers through his hair. She doesn't know if he means that Sam should have tried harder to fight for Leah, or if he should have tried harder to set aside his jealousy. She doesn't press the issue. "Is that what happened two nights ago? When you ran out of your house?" she asks quietly.

Jacob sighs, the warm breath blowing against her chest. "A lot of stuff happened that night."

"Such as?" she prompts.

"The thought of his money, Bells, it just pisses me off. I know it's irrational, and I'm so sorry I took it out on you. But it just makes me think of all the things he could give you that I can't."

"You know all those material things don't mean anything to me, Jake." She strokes her fingers up and down his back. "So what if he left me a pile of so much money so big I could never spend it all? He gave me terror and death. You give me love, real love. And life. And friends, and family, and happiness, and hope."

His body stays stiff under her hands. So quietly she can barely hear, he says, "I want to give you everything, Bells, and there is so much I can't."

"I wasn't done with my list of good things you give me, Jake," she reprimands her with a smile in her voice. "You give me lots and lots of toe curling sex, and more orgasms than I can count." He laughs at that, relaxing slightly. She uses the opportunity to say something more difficult. "But I think Carlisle was right. I think the money should go to the tribe, not to me." Jacob stiffens again. "I think we should use Edward's money to pay the pack for your services protecting the everyone, invest a chunk for future packs. It's only fair to your brothers and to Leah."

He tries to keep his voice steady. He pulls away, rolling on his back to stare fixedly at the ceiling. "We aren't mercenaries for hire. And we don't need charity."

She wishes he was in her arms again. But he doesn't look like he wants to be touched. "Of course not. But you wouldn't expect a marine or a soldier to do their job for free, so why should you? You patrol too much to hold down normal jobs or go to college. It's unfair to you guys, Jake. All your opportunities taken away, your lives on hold. This would make it easier, wouldn't it? Would make being wolves more... livable?"

His pack has already said as much. He knows there is truth in what she says, in what they say. He just has such a hard time getting past the anger thudding in his chest when he thinks about anything associated with Edward Cullen. "Probably," he admits grudgingly.

She ventures a hand on his arm, and when he doesn't pull away she asks, "Is that all that happened that night, Jake?"

"No," he sighs, turning back toward her and pulling her into his arms. "I found a fresh vamp trail. It came past your house while you were still at mine, went through the Cullen place, in the front door and out the back. I chased it, thought I was pretty close, but it must have gotten into a car before I could find it. Trail dead ended in a road. I've been searching high and low for another trace, even looked in Seattle, but I haven't found anything again."

"Who do you think it was?" Now it is Bella's turn to stiffen in his arms. He tightens his grip on her.

"I wish I knew, honey. We're keeping up the patrols in case it was the Volturi coming to look for the ones they lost. We won't let up, won't let our guards down. Sam and Collin are going on a spirit quest tomorrow. Maybe they can figure out how to spirit walk, too, then we can cover all kinds of ground to look."

"Oh," she doesn't know what else to say. She hates that the pack, that Jacob, are still in this position. It only strengthens her conviction to help repay the pack, at least in some small measure, for what they do. What they are giving up their normal lives to do.

"But that's not all," he says very quietly. "Something else happened after, but I don't know exactly what." His throat closes, a choking sensation gripping his neck, just from the thought of Jasmine. "I went to Leah and Seth's after I lost the trail to let them know. I... I... I ran into their cousin."

Why is he having so much trouble speaking? Something in his voice makes Bella's worst fear rush to the surface. Oh god. Is this it? Were the last two nights his way of saying goodbye to her? Or were they Jacob's way of fighting for her? Is this why he is so mad at Sam? Because he is actually mad at himself? Is her world about to turn on its axis the way Leah's turned on hers? Her vision starts to blur.

But Jacob's voice brings her back. "It was the weirdest thing, Bells." His use of her nickname would reassure her except for the fact that Sam, to this day, still occasionally calls Leah by hers. "The instant I saw her, it was like... It was like..." Bells panics as Jacob stutters. Her heart races in her chest, and his matches it. This is her worst nightmare coming to life. "I had the strongest involuntary reaction to her."

Oh god. It really is happening. Already happened. Is it all over? The best thing to ever happen to her, is it broken forever? She starts to hyperventilate as she clings to him.

Jacob feels the constriction of his own chest, the pressure at the center of his being. He thinks it is his strange reaction to Jasmine until he finally realizes the sensations are coming from Bella. "Hey, honey, are you okay? What's wrong?" He brushes her hair out of her face and tries to tip her chin up so he can look into her eyes, but she keeps herself hidden from him as best she can.

Bella struggles not to cry and takes a shaky breath. She reminds herself that Jacob is here in her bed right now, warm arms holding her tight. She never wants him to let go. He'll fight for her, he promised her that he would. "Just tell me, Jake," she manages to say.

He frowns. His stupid problem can wait. His Bells is hurting. She is terrified of something, is trembling against him. "No, baby, you're more important. What's wrong?"

"You still love me, right?" she whispers, barely audible even to him.

He buries his face in her hair and squeezes her against him. "Oh, Bells, how could you even ask me that? I'll love you forever."

Somehow, she isn't reassured by this in the least. After all, Sam apparently still loves Leah for all the good it has done her. She knows Jacob will always love her. But is it enough? Will that even matter in the end? "I love you too, Jake." Does she want to know? Is it better not to know, to live in blissful ignorance?

But she has to know. Now that the idea is planted in her brain, she can't get rid of it. As she gathers herself together, Jacob keeps his left arm tucked tightly around her waist and strokes her hair with his right, peppering light kisses onto the top of her head. He doesn't know what's wrong, and he hardly cares about whatever is going on with Jasmine when his Bells feels so scared. He urges her gently, "Tell me what's wrong. Whatever it is, please just tell me."

Bella gathers up her courage and takes a shaky breath. "Did you imprint on her, Jake?" To her great surprise, Jacob starts to laugh beneath her. She picks up her head to look at him in confusion.

He catches the annoyed, perplexed look on her face and apologizes. "Sorry, sorry. It's just that, well, I couldn't exactly keep my memories to myself the past couple days on patrol."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

He looks at the ceiling with chagrin. "I, uh, sort of gave the guys a little show after that night at Sam's place. And they saw what happened with me when I saw Jasmine for the first time. Paul said that maybe I imprinted on her, but that what she really needed me to do was, and I'm quoting here, 'fuck Bella until she couldn't walk straight.'"

Suddenly Bella's anxiety is overruled by her embarrassment. She buries her face in his warm chest and mumbles, "Oh god."

"I'm sorry. I try not to let them see anything, but sometimes I just can't stop thinking about you. And you know how I was like two nights ago. I couldn't get enough of you. And yes, it had something to do with Jasmine. But I don't know what."

She raises up her head to look at him. "What happened?"

"It was weird. She was perfectly nice, pretty happy to see me, actually. But as soon as I saw her, my wolf got really aggressive. I wanted to attack her, and all she was doing was saying hi. She touched my arm, and I nearly phased, I was so angry for no reason. If Leah hadn't been there, I might have hurt her. And... And..." Jacob takes a deep breath.

"What? What else?"

How does he say this without sounding bad? "I got turned on. Out of the blue." He doesn't take a pause to breathe, he races forward, rushing through his tale so she doesn't get the wrong idea. It is too late, though. He sees the hurt flash across her eyes. She knows that it is unfair of her to get mad at him for finding another woman attractive, but she can't help but feel insecure. Especially since Jasmine was apparently so alluring that he got so aroused that he couldn't even wait long enough to drive Bella home before taking her. But he plunges on. "My wolf started chanting your name. I had to have you, and I couldn't wait. We phased in for a couple minutes, and Leah had to bite me to get me to focus enough to say what was going on."

Bella still doesn't understand what happened. He sees the doubt swirling behind her eyes. "You saw her and you needed to have sex, so you raced over to see me? So that you wouldn't just," she chokes out the word, "take Jasmine?"

He shakes his head and twines his fingers in her hair, tilting her so he has no choice but to look him in the eye. "No, Bells. I had this overwhelming need to mate with you. Immediately. You and only you. I couldn't think about anything else. I had to have you. And if that wasn't an option, well, I might have attacked Jasmine. Like, ripped her head off, not attacked her in bed."

Bella's eyes widen. His admission puts the night in perspective, the way he roughly dominated her, the way he tied her down and fucked her hard, the fact that he actually lost control and phased in Sam's living room.

He looks chagrined. "I'm so sorry. I took out my crazy frustration on your body. I could have hurt you." He eyes her wrists. "I did hurt you, and I'm so, so sorry. I couldn't contain the wolf." His voice drops to a harsh whisper. "I nearly mated with you in that form, Bella. It would have torn you apart."

Her eyes widen. She had wondered about that. "Why? Why do you think you had that reaction?"

He shakes his head. "Something about her feels like a threat. It's like being around a vampire, even Rosalie or Dr. Cullen. Something instinctual in my wolf reacts to her. The man in me knows she's just a girl, but the wolf's instinct is that there's something wrong."

"Do you think she's dangerous?"

"If anyone else in the pack felt the same way, I'd be sure of it. I mean, other than Seth, every single one of the pack gets the same reaction around a vampire. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up, your whole body feels on edge, you need to phase and rip into it. We all just push that instinct down around Rosalie, for instance, but the urge is still there. Hell, even Seth feels that way. He's just the best at setting it aside. But Leah and Seth and Brady all vouch for Jasmine. I'm the only one who has a problem with her. So I don't know."

She settles back onto his chest. "Well, you only have to deal with her for a little longer. You probably don't even have to see her again."

"About that," he frowns. "She might be moving here. Her parents got transferred to Tokyo, so she might be moving in with Brady. She'd be in my grade."

"Oh," Bella's voice is small and soft, so he almost misses what she says next. "Then maybe we'd better start carrying Leah's handcuffs with us in case of emergencies."

After a beat, he laughs until a tear springs to his eye. "Oh, Bells, I love you so much." He rolls them over to pin her under him, kissing her sweet lips and relishing the sound of her giggling mixed with her moans. This time, his lovemaking is full of affection and laughter.

X-x-x-x-X  
December 26  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob and Jared stick to a tight perimeter on their patrol of the reservation the next morning. Jacob approaches Taylor Point when he hears Sam phase in. Collin is running late and hasn't yet arrived for their run to the National Forest.

_Good luck, man_, Jacob wishes him well.

_How's Emily doing? She gonna be okay for a few days by herself? _Jared asks.

_She's headed back up to Neah Bay. Gonna be home in time for New Years, though._

_If you're back by then, are you going to go to the Clearwaters' party? _Jared asks, referring to Sue's New Year's Eve celebration. The entire pack is invited._ Kim would love to see Emily there._

_Yeah, Em wants to go_. They can tell from his tone that Sam is less than interested, but it is obviously Emily's decision. They are all too polite to say so, but they all know that Sam doesn't want to see Leah there with another man. His thoughts are guarded, but the feeling is too strong to ignore.

Gently, Jared says, _It's good for her to be getting out there, dating again._

_Maybe_, is the only response Sam can manage.

_She's happier now_, Jacob says. Normally they avoid the topic of Leah and Emily if at all possible, but Sam can't stop thinking about it. _She deserves to be happy._

Sam grinds his teeth. It is easier to be quiet than to say something he'll regret, but it is harder to filter things in the pack mind_. Do you know anything about this guy? _Sam finally asks.

_Not really. But he's the last left standing of a few guys she was seeing, whatever that means_. Jacob answers.

A black mood settles over Sam. He can't decide if it's better or worse for her to be dating around or getting serious with one person. At least she hasn't said anything about falling in love. He doesn't think he can handle that despite his own imprint pushing thoughts of Emily into the forefront of his mind. Somehow that only frustrates him. He can't keep his mind off Emily, but he can't stop thinking about Leah either.

_You're not supposed to be with her_, Jared reminds him. _Just focus on Emily. Think about Emily._

He tries, and it only makes him feel worse. Now he feels more guilty toward Emily for contemplating Leah at all. Irritated, Jacob can't help but growl, _Leah deserves a little consideration for once, actually. Try to be happy for her._

But Sam can't help himself. He points his paws toward her house and starts toward it. _I can't help it. I know it's wrong. I know I have no right. But we were supposed to get married this weekend._

_Shit, you were? I'm sorry, man, _Jared says.

_We hadn't told anyone yet, but we set a date. Leah asked Emily to be her maid of honor the day I saw Emily the first time after phasing._

_Oh, fuck, _says Jacob._ So the day Emily agreed, a few hours later you broke up with Leah for the maid of honor?_

_Yeah_.

_It was really cold asking Leah to be a bridesmaid, Sam_, reprimands Jacob. It was something he frankly hadn't considered until Bella mentioned it to him one day after the topic came up on her commute back home from Port Angeles with Leah. He remembers acutely the tearing sensation in his heart when he opened Bella's wedding invitation to Edward, and feels guilty about how unsympathetic he was to Leah for so long. _What were you guys trying to do, rub salt in her wounds?_

_I know. But it's really important to Emily. She wants her best friend back._

Jacob huffs and can't quite keep his thoughts to himself, _And what the imprint wants, the imprint gets..._

Sam defends Emily. _It's not just that Emily misses her. She didn't want Leah to feel even more isolated than she already did. They had planned on being each other's maid of honor since they were little girls! Besides, what was I supposed to do?_

Jacob snarls, _You were supposed to talk some sense into her. What do you think that's going to be like for Leah? Standing three feet behind Emily, looking over her shoulder right at you? How is she supposed to think about anything other than the fact that you asked her to marry you first? And all the while, half the people there will be staring at her the whole time, wondering if she'll hold it together or not? Why are you doing this to her?_

Sam's mind swirls with memories. First and foremost is the look of pure joy on her face when he asked Leah to marry him. They were sitting side by side on the swing set at the tribal elementary school at midnight. He had been carrying the ring in his pocket for three weeks waiting for the perfect time to ask her. When she said yes, tears reflecting the light of the moon, he thought she had never been lovelier. That memory fades into the first time he kissed her, two years before, when she was just fifteen years old. Her eyes had slipped shut, her thick lashes brushing her cheeks, her smooth skin flushed, her full, red lips parted as her little pink tongue moistened her mouth. She tasted like the cotton candy she had just eaten at the carnival. And the image morphs into the moment he entered her for the first time, six months later. Those same lush lips parted in a gasping cry, a little furrow on her brow, her eyes squeezed shut, her head thrown back to expose her long neck. And a few days later, the first time he brought her to climax, her nails digging into his back, her soft breasts pressed against his chest, her legs locked around him, her wavering moan of his name the very sexiest thing he had ever heard. And he knows now that it is the sexiest thing he has ever heard, and he will never hear it again. He has given up every right to even think about it, but he cannot banish it from his memory. Cannot banish her from his mind. Cannot banish her from his heart. The only thing he knows how to do anymore is hurt her, but still he does not know how to let her go.

He finds himself in the woods behind her house. There is an unfamiliar car in the driveway, and he hears a strange male voice coming from inside the home. And he hears what used to be his very favorite sound in the entire world, her laughter, rich and deep. Now someone else's to enjoy. He used to know exactly how to draw every kind of laugh from her. He could tickle her until she snorted. He could blow on the side of her neck to make her giggle. He knew what jokes would make her chuckle. He could make her laugh so hard she cried.

And later, he could only make her cry.

Now he would kill for a single tear from her. He knows he won't get an honest laugh. All he gets from her now is a square set to her shoulders and pointed looks in any direction other than his. She speaks to him when there is no other option. He sees inside her mind only vicariously through his brothers; the only time they share a pack mind is during an emergency. She isn't doing it to hurt him, she does it to protect herself. And to protect herself, he sees her moving on. Moving on from him. He should have moved on long ago, should have moved on when he broke her heart, should have moved on before he asked her cousin to marry him. But he was blinded by the imprint. Blinded so that everything else in his line of vision was blurred behind bright white spots as if someone had shoved a flash bulb in his face. Somewhere behind one of those spots was the girl he fell in love with, the girl he promised to love forever.

It wasn't a lie. He still loves her. He didn't know it at the time. It was buried beneath too many new sensations. He can feel it now. He never stopped. He'll never stop.

And until now, he thought she would love him forever. He didn't realize it, but he has been holding on to her. When she phased and her father died, when she joined his pack, he was sad for her tragedy, but relieved as well. If he had her this way, as his sister, he didn't really have to let her go. Buried beneath all her acid and bile, he could see her real feelings, the ones she was trying so desperately to hide. How much she missed him. How much he hurt her. How much she wished he would open his eyes again and see her. How much she wished he would return to her. And he would never admit it, not to anyone, not even to himself, that he wanted her to stay that way. It wasn't just good for his ego. He never stopped loving her, so it only made sense that she should love him back.

His heart lurched in his chest during the newborn battle when Leah went after the last remaining newborn, and nearly stopped when it flew toward her. Only Jacob's intervention kept her alive. She was distracted enough worrying over Jacob that she didn't notice Sam's reaction to her. Sam, in turn, returned to Emily, and the imprint immediately buried his feelings for Leah again.

But when she left his pack for Jacob's, he lost her for the second time. He lost her because she left him, not because he sent her away. It was then that he realized that the heart he thought belonged to his imprint never belonged to her at all. Emily has his wolf, as his gods have chosen, but his human heart still belongs to the girl he gave it to.

_What are you doing? _Jacob asks wearily. _Get out of there. Go get Collin._

But Sam won't leave unless he is Alpha ordered to do so. So he watches as a handsome blonde man carries Leah's bags to his car. He watches her exit her home, kiss her mother on the cheek, and take the hand of the stranger as one side of her mouth turns up in a little smile, a sparkle in her eye. The wind shifts, and she turns toward the woods and frowns a little. She knows he is there, but she can't figure out exactly where. He very nearly phases back to human to ask her to stay. But before he makes a move, his stomach churns with nausea when he sees the man lean over and kiss the frown off her face.

_Let her go. _Jacob's tenor is nearly an order. _You made your choice, now stick with it._

_It wasn't a choice! _This time Jared protests on behalf of his friend. Sam is silent as he watches Leah get into the car. The man reaches over to tuck her hair behind her ear before he shifts into drive and pulls away.

_There's always a choice, _Jacob says quietly. _I'm not saying you made the wrong one, Sam, but you did make a choice. The path of least resistance. At the time, you couldn't even see that there was a second path. But that doesn't mean it wasn't there._ And Sam remembers Emily, just days after he met her again, scowling at him and telling him to go back to Leah before she slammed her front door in his face. He couldn't do it. He didn't do it. But his imprint had told him to do it. What does it mean that he didn't? He is supposed to be whatever his imprint needs. So did she really want him, deep down, for herself? Did her words belie the desires in the depths of her heart? Or is it as Jacob has said? That it was his choice to make, and he chose Emily?

His decision made so much sense at the time. He meant to let Leah go so since he knew he would no longer be able to give himself to her fully. He knew things would never be the same between them, and he believed it would be crueler to string her along without being fully invested in her. She deserved better from him. Deserved better from the man who professed to love her. So if he couldn't bring himself to choose her, to fight for her, why can't he let her go? He told her it was over, and for months he thought that was the end of it. He felt like it was the end. What happened?

_She didn't actually disappear, the imprint just made it hard for you to see her. But she was there the entire time. Now your eyes are open. But she was always there. _Jacob sighs. _Clear your head. Go for a run, Sam. Collin will catch up._

This instruction Sam can obey. He makes for the heart of the forest. A part of him wants to run home to Emily, let the imprint wash all his concerns away, but he knows this is better. He has a purpose. He needs to find his taxilit. He needs to see if there are any guardian spirits out there except his wolf. He understands duty, and he is ready for this duty. He will protect his brother and protect his tribe when he does not know how to protect himself, when he does not know how to protect those whom he loves the most.

X-x-x-x-X

After Sam and Collin reach the heart of Olympic National Forest, they phase back into their human bodies, and the pack hears nothing else from them for three days. Jacob peeks in on them from time to time while spirit walking. He trusts them to take care of themselves, but they are his responsibility now, not to mention that his Aunt Connie wants to know how her little boy is doing. Emily hasn't called, but he knows she wants an update as well. So he leaves his body in Bella's care while he seeks them out.

_He comes across Sam first. Sam is seated in a small clearing in the foothills of a mountains that overlooks the fork of a stream. He wears only his cargo shorts and carries a flint, a metal canteen resting at his side, and the ceremonial herbs that Old Quil gave to him for his journey. While pressing the bag into their palms, he had told Collin and Sam with a grin, "Now this is the real stuff. I didn't raid my daughter's spice rack for these. When you are ready, make a tea from this, and it will help you along your journey." Sam looks pensive and sad and stares deep into the fire. Jacob cannot see what he sees. He searches the area long enough to be certain that Sam is in no danger and rises high on the air._

_He listens carefully for his cousin's heartbeat and finds it about fifteen miles to the south__**. **__Collin hikes along a deer path that cuts through an otherwise densely forested area. Jacob follows his cousin until Collin reaches a string of majestic redwoods. Collin stops at the base of each giant tree and looks upward, tracing the bark with his fingers. Jacob speeds ahead, then stops and hovers over the tightest concentration of redwoods. He concentrates on the life of the forest. There are the vibrations of thousands of insects moving just beneath the surface, the rapid, staccato heartbeats of tiny mammals and birds, the cold, calm slithering of dozens of reptiles, the warm, green hearts of the trees, even a brother lone wolf stalking through the undergrowth. But something here is special. Something here is important._

_He finds the taxilit before Collin does. Perched at the top of the a fifteen hundred year old sequoia, Jacob feels it. He feels the glowing spirit of a taxilit. An ancient resides here, one of the few who remain. Black eyes look at him, spotting him before he sees the distinctive grey helmet and back and brown and white spotted chest of a peregrine falcon. This falcon is nearly as old as the tree in which it perches. He greets it as his brother in his native tongue, and it blinks at him. He floats in the air beside it, and it pays him no mind. It isn't waiting for him. It waits for Collin. And indeed, by the time the sun has reached its zenith in the sky, Collin has discovered its location. Jacob watches in fascination as Collin calmly scales the tree. The branch upon which the bird sits is much too slender to bear Collin's weight, so the boy goes as high as the tree can bear him, straddles the branch, and leans against the trunk. The falcon and the boy watch one another. Jacob, realizing he is intruding upon a private moment, retreats._

_When Jacob returns the next day, Sam is close to the clearing where Jacob found him the day before. But today he is on his knees by the gnarled roots of a fallen, dead tree. He roots out large handfuls of acorns and stuffs them into his pockets. Jacob watches him in fascination, then rises up to feel out the surrounding forest. And in a den just a mile away, he discovers a black bear dozing in the midday. Its spirit, too, glows. So this must be Sam's taxilit. Sam will offer it the foraged nuts, raided from a squirrel's winter store, when it awakens for the night. Jacob smiles. The pairing is fitting. Sometimes Sam does seem more bear than wolf, solid, steady, and strong._

_He rises up to find his cousin. As he approaches the grove of redwoods, he gets a happy shock. He spots Collin easily, but twice. One, his corporeal body lying prone on the ground beside a dying fire. Two, a spirit, hovering in the smoke of the fire. He wants to shout a greeting but is afraid of startling his cousin back into his body. Instead he lowers himself to the ground to affect the appearance of walking along the ground._

_Jacob spies the falcon in the tree just behind Collin, and he opens his mouth to give it a word of greeting. But before he can speak, the bird ruffles its feathers in a distinct display of warning. He understands. It is not malicious in any way. But the bird wants more time alone with the boy. Jacob slips away, otherwise unnoticed._

X-x-x-x-X

On New Year's Eve, Collin and Sam both reappear in the pack mind. It is time to come home. Quil is running along Second Beach, while Jacob is to the east running a broad swatch past the Cullen mansion. Sam phases in first. He doesn't really have words for his brothers, but shows them images.

_The black bear lumbering toward him, sniffing at his offered acorns. Watching each other by the light of the waning moon. Following it through the undergrowth, dry briars scratching at his legs. And then the sounds. First the skittering of the insects beneath his feet, then the rustling of feathers high above. And then he feels it. He doesn't hear it. But he feels it. The meaning behind the small animal voices. Some young, many fleeting, their time on this earth only a matter of months. A few more mature, their lifespans up to several years. And the voice of the black bear. Wordless and ancient._

_But Sam understands. He hears, and he understands._

Soon Collin phases in. At first he watches with fascination, but soon he wants to tell his own story. This time, unlike the images and sounds that Sam transmitted, Collin gives them sensations. _Wind and speed. The meaninglessness of gravity. He is untethered from the earth. Collin soars. He whirls and dips, plunging toward his own body, before pulling himself up and racing to the sky. Up and up and up... until a thread pulls him back. The thread connecting him to his body. He pulls at it, but it is there, inescapable. He must return to his body now, or he never will._

Quil is speechless for the first time in memory. Jacob says simply, _It's a rush, isn't it?_

Collin just answers, _Yeah. Sort of makes this crazy wolf thing worth it._

Sam and Collin don't really have anything else to say. Their minds are too wrapped up in their life altering journeys. So the four wolves share the pack mind in relative silence. Jacob shows them images of his own spirit walks, of his own communications with the animal world, they relive the details of theirs, and Quil watches on in awe.

Collin goes straight home to his mother upon arrival in La Push. She greets him with open arms and the biggest meal he has ever had.

Sam phases out as soon as he reaches the borders of the reservation. It is midday. Both Jacob and Quil give him space, at least physically, but Quil, having seen in the pack mind what transpired between Leah and Sam, asks quietly, _Is he going to Leah's house? Or straight home to Emily?_

_I don't know. We'll probably find out tonight, though._

X-x-x-x-X


	12. Chapter 11

X-x-x-x-X  
New Year's Eve  
X-x-x-x-X

Bella wants to get to Leah's house before the party is underway. She wants to talk to her friend before the house is overrun with people, particularly since so many of the guests have supernaturally good hearing. So they arrive two hours before the party is slated to begin with the guise of assisting in preparations, Rachel in tow. They find Sue and Leah busy in the kitchen.

"So?" Bella asks eagerly.

"Hi, good to see you," Leah looks at Bella with a twinkle in her eye.

Rachel presses on. "Yeah, yeah, greetings and stuff. Who cares about the pleasantries. So?"

Leah chuckles. "So what?"

Sue smiles quietly from the counter where she chops vegetables for a party tray. It's nice to see her daughter with friends again.

"How was it? How was he?"

Leah shrugs. "Ask him yourself. He's in the basement with Seth setting up Rock Band."

"Awesome, Rock Band? I'm a monster on the drums."

Jacob runs off to find the boys and the video game as Seth yells up the stairs, "Prepare to be owned, Black!"

Sue chuckles and shoos the girls out of her kitchen, claiming that they are in her way but really just giving them space to talk. They head up to Leah's bedroom. Bella plops down in Leah's desk chair while Leah folds herself onto her bed. Rachel sits cross legged on the floor.

"Okay, there are no boys and no moms here. Spill," Rachel demands.

"What do you want to know?" Leah asks.

"Did you have a good time?" Bella asks.

"Hell yes. Next question."

Rachel says, "Well, what did you guys do?"

Leah shrugs, "Touristy stuff. The Space Needle, the aquarium."

"Where else did you go?" Bella asks.

"Um..."

Rachel narrows her eyes. "That's one day's worth of stuff, and you've been gone for five days."

"Well, there was the wedding."

"Two days worth of stuff."

"Fine," Leah laughs. "And we didn't leave the room for two days straight. It was worthy of little nympho Swan here and her porn stud boyfriend."

Rachel shudders. "Eww! That's my baby brother you're talking about!"

Leah smirks. "When it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck, fucks like a duck, call it a duck."

Bella blushes and snorts with laughter. Rachel narrows her eyes and points her finger at Leah. "Just wait 'til Seth starts dating. Then I'm getting you back."

Leah laughs and holds her hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I dish it out, I can take it too."

"Is it serious?" Bella asks.

Leah looks at her hands, now lowered in her lap. She isn't smirking now. "He wants it to be. Me, I'm not so sure."

"Why not?" Bella asks. She doesn't know much about Brad other than the fact that he seems to make Leah happy, but that's a great start.

"Two things," Leah begins. "He's transferring to Oregon next quarter. Like, next week."

"I didn't know that," Bella says.

"I did," Leah shrugs. "It was always the plan. It's one of the reasons I dated him, I think, in retrospect, instead of one of the other guys. You know. I didn't think it was going to be long-term."

"And the second thing?" prompts Rachel.

"I guess that is the second thing. I got into this expecting casual. Short term. Don't know if I'm prepared for more. I mean, if I think about getting serious with someone, him or anyone else, how does that mesh with my crazy life? If he really knew me, he'd run in the other direction."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Leah," interjects Bella. She doesn't know Brad that well, but she suspects there is more than one man out there who would put up with her crazy life for the chance to be with her.

Leah gets right to the point. "Okay, well, let's just say that's true. What if I imprint?"

Rachel looks her right in the eye. "It's not everything, Leah. It's not the whole world, despite what Sam and Jared try to convince you of. Take Paul. He's bringing a date tonight."

Leah's and Bella's mouths drop open in surprise. They knew Rachel had been thinking about what to do about Paul for days, ever since Rebecca told her to pick him or let him go. She still hasn't decided, exactly, but she wants to see if she is just fooling herself into thinking that Paul might have a shot at happiness with someone other than her. Trevor is still out of the state, thank goodness. She didn't want to have to figure out how not to invite him for the holiday, and she certainly didn't want to flaunt him in Paul's face. She still hasn't decided what to do about the two of them. But she hopes to figure it out tonight. She wants to see for herself. Elle is, by all accounts, the sort of girl who would be good for Paul. He had been attracted to her before the imprint, and the two have become good friends. So she will watch them tonight, see how they interact, and hopefully it will help her decide what to do.

Leah furrows her brow. "Did you tell him to bring her?" Rachel nods yes. "In that case, kudos to you for not just giving in. But you may be kidding yourself if you think he's going to be able to really give that girl what she deserves."

Rachel sighs, nods, and looks at her hands. "If he really can't, then, well, we'll deal with it. But I want to see if that's really true before I flip my entire life over for this imprint. Before I commit him to this one path forever."

"Good for you, Rachel," Leah says solemnly. Her face has fallen a bit, her bright mood dulled.

Bella picks up on it. "I'm sorry Emily didn't do that for you, Leah."

Leah sighs heavily and flops back onto her bed. "She tried for a little while."

"How long is a little while?" Rachel probes.

Leah pauses for several seconds. "About a month. A little less, actually. More like three weeks."

Now it is Rachel's turn to be surprised. "That's all? That bitch!"

Leah laughs in surprise and nods. "In a way, that was the worst part. I mean, I believed I'd be with Sam forever, at least after we got engaged. But it's not like I didn't know that it was possible for a relationship to end. If I didn't see it coming when he broke up with me, I really didn't see it coming when she agreed to be with him. She was my oldest friend. I didn't think she'd do that to me. I mean, I get it now, that it wasn't just a typical cheating situation, but still..."

"But now you know," Rachel begins softly.

Leah smiles sardonically. Her eyes are dry. She has cried enough over what happened, and amongst these people, she is safe. "That she really could have turned him down? You mean from watching you? Yeah." There is a long pause when none of the girls know what to say. Leah finally whispers, "You know what this past Saturday was?"

Bella and Rachel both shake their heads. "The date we set for our wedding. The same night I asked Em to be my maid of honor, Sam dumped me for her."

"No," Rachel frowns, disbelieving.

"Mmm. Anyway, I thought it was poetic when Brad asked me to go to his cousin's wedding on the same date. A sign, or something."

Bella blinks at her. "A sign of what?"

Leah rolls on her side to look at her friends, tucking her hands under her cheek. She smirks. "That the wolf gods still agreed that no matter the circumstances, I was supposed to have spend this weekend having sex. So I did."

The girls burst out laughing, so they don't notice when the front door opens and closes again. They don't notice the soft, feminine voices greeting Sue in the kitchen, or the steps heading down to the basement. Bella isn't there when Jasmine happily sets her eyes on Jacob Black again. But Jacob notices.

X-x-x-x-X

The Clearwaters have a great basement. Once upon a time, it was a favorite hangout for the teenagers of La Push. It was isolated enough from the adults upstairs, always had the latest video game console and a decent sized flat screen TV (since Harry himself was a bit of a sucker for video games), several cushy couches and armchairs, lots of food, and space. Parents let their kids go over because it was Harry and Sue's home, and they were trusted by everyone. Leah was pretty and funny and friendly, and everyone has always loved Seth's sunny nature. Best of all, the room's hideous wood panelled walls and ancient shag carpet were ugly enough to keep adults away from the room. Once upon a time, there was a steady stream of friends and acquaintances in and out of the basement. That all ended the night Harry Clearwater died and Seth and Leah's lives changed forever. Things had changed already, of course, after Leah was abruptly and mysteriously dumped by Sam because of his sudden new feelings for her cousin, but she still had Emily and her circle of girlfriends. She didn't feel alone. Not until her best friend was mauled by a bear and chose that night to give in to her ex-fiance's advances. But at least she had her other girlfriends. Had them, that is, until her father died watching her explode into a wolf and her ex-fiance ordered her to stay away from all her friends out of fear for their safety. So, in the span of a few short months, she went from being the social center of La Push to a pariah, forced to shun her remaining friends, hated by her packmates, with no choice but to share a collective mind with the man who broke her heart and couldn't stop thinking about his newfound imprint on her cousin.

Seth doesn't say anything about the change to anyone. Leah has lost so much more than he has, and Sam already feels guilty about what he has done to Leah's life. But the fact is that he is a social creature, and he misses the bustle of friends nearly as much as she does. So it's a nice change of pace having Jacob, always one of his favorite people, and Leah's new boyfriend to hang out with, and lots of people on the way. Especially knowing that instead of sulking in her room by herself, Leah has her own friends upstairs. If he pays attention, he can hear them laughing. Seth smiles. All in all, the night is looking up.

Seth has dibs on the drum set, so Jacob fumbles his way through the bass section of "Eye of the Tiger." Brad apparently spends all too much of his free time playing this game and has it set on the expert mode. Seth's werewolf reflexes make him a match for Brad. Jacob hasn't played in months, and it takes him a while to get used to the game again. Brad teases him, "Maybe you should stick to bench pressing, man. How much do you work out, anyway?"

"Um, I run a lot, I guess," Jacob answers.

Brad glances over at Seth. "I'm used to girls' older brothers trying to intimidate me, but I figured I was safe since Seth here is just fifteen. But I was kind of hoping he'd be a skinny nerd, and I didn't figure on him bringing backup," he jokes.

Seth laughs. "Did she warn you about the guys?"

"No, should I be worried?" Brad asks.

"Well, Jake's the biggest, but not by that much."

Brad shrugs as he taps the keys on his fake guitar. "I'll try not to get in any fights, then."

They keep chatting as they play the game, none of them willing to subject the others to their singing voices. Jacob and Seth find Brad to be easygoing and funny, and he seems rather smitten with Leah. "Any guys coming tonight I should be concerned about?" Brad asks nonchalantly.

Jacob and Seth look at each other. "Uh, you should have that conversation with Leah."

Brad doesn't pick up on their discomfort. "Oh, that bad, huh?" He laughs it off. "Maybe I should watch my back."

Jacob strains to listen to the girls talking upstairs and realizes that Leah is discussing Brad. He glances at Seth, who hears the same thing, and they exchange more worried glances. Hopefully Sam will be too tired to come to the party tonight.

Brad engages Seth while Jacob searches the menu for another song to play. "So, your sister say anything about me?" He tries to say it casually, but it doesn't work.

Seth gives him a genuine smile. "Not to me, but I have a feeling you're the topic of conversation right now," he says, pointing to the ceiling. "But whether or not she said anything, I know she likes spending time with you."

"Good." Brad looks relieved. "She's a spectacular girl. Never met anyone quite like her before."

Jacob grins. "You'll get no argument from us. Leah's one of a kind."

They switch instruments, Brad taking the drums, Jacob taking the guitar, and Seth moving to the bass. Jacob is relaxed and laughing at Brad's exaggerated enthusiasm on the little drum set when the hairs on the back of his neck start to rise. After a string of success, he starts to hit a succession of false notes.

Brad says, "Man, you weren't kidding when you said you'd need to get on the drums. Or maybe you just really suck at this and aren't willing to admit it!" Jacob laughs weakly and starts glancing over his shoulder at the basement door. It doesn't open, much to his relief.

Seth notices his discomfort. "Something up?"

"Not sure," Jacob responds. He does know, of course. He can hear Jasmine above his head. Her feet make the floorboards creak.

Seth figures out who has just shown up. He knows just how uncomfortable Jasmine makes his Alpha. "Want me to go get Bella?" he offers.

Jacob shakes his head. It is a little hard to hear the girls' discussion over the loud video game, but if he concentrates he can understand their conversation. And he isn't about to interrupt Leah's explanation of what this week was supposed to be for her.

The basement door opens, and Jacob's skin starts to prickle uncomfortably all over his body. He swallows hard and concentrates on tapping his fingers on his toy guitar in time with the flashing lights on the screen. All the fun has been drained out of the game, but it is something to concentrate on. But he can feel her. He can feel her just a few feet behind him, and his wolf starts to growl low in his mind. He tries to muzzle the wolf. He takes deep, calming breaths, but it only draws her scent into his nose.

Oh, god. It's happening again. He feels an ache settling in his groin matched by a painful throbbing in his chest. He grits his jaw as he senses her eyes boring into the back of his skull. He doesn't turn around. Seth looks between them and away from the screen, missing several beats altogether.

He hears her voice. "Oh, don't stop on account of me," she says brightly.

"Hey, Jasmine," Seth greets her but he looks at Jacob, who keeps his eyes straight ahead and fixed on the television. He tries to send her back into the kitchen. "Did you get some food? I think my mom is putting a bunch of stuff out if you want to make a plate."

"Yeah, but she shooed me out. She wants to get it all ready, and she knows I'm a disaster in the kitchen," she laughs. "I heard you guys playing, so I figured I'd join you. I love this game! You guys are pretty good," she says, noting their score. "Happy New Year, Jake," She moves into his field of vision, giving him a tentative smile.

Humorlessly, he grits out, "Hey, Jasmine," not looking at her. She looks between Jacob and the television, gets no further response from him, and introduces herself to Brad.

Seth diverts her attention. "We need a singer. You can jump in on the next round. Or lady's choice of instrument."

"Oh, I don't know if I should subject you to my singing," she looks back at Jacob before affecting a shy tilt to her head. "I'm better on guitar or bass."

Seth glances at her quizzically. "Your mom says you sang in the choir at your old school, though. Says you're pretty good."

She reaches for the microphone. "Oh, that's just a mother's biased ear, you know?" She begins to hum under her breath with the refrain, and Seth and Jacob's excellent hearing note that she is pitch perfectly on key.

As soon as the song ends, Jacob promptly excuses himself, claiming to need the bathroom. Jasmine reaches out for the toy guitar, "Oh, let me take that for you," she says with a smile, casually brushing her fingers against his.

Jacob's erection grows to full proportions at the contact while his wolf snarls loud in his mind. He yanks his hand away as if burned and rushes up the stairs, praying she couldn't see his arousal under his jeans and untucked shirt. Thank God Bella is only a few feet away. He needs her. As his wolf chants for its mate, Jacob notices the next song starting up behind him**.** Jasmine's singing voice is high and clear, her claim to be a poor singer a case of false modesty. She sings like she knows just how good she is.

As Jacob's wolf pulls him toward Bella, whose voice he hears above him speaking softly to Leah, he nearly runs directly into Charlie Swan. Great. He tugs awkwardly at the bottom of his shirt. Here is the only person he wants to see his erection less than Jasmine.

"Whoa, what's the rush, son?"

Jacob forces a false laugh. "Oh, you know me and my appetite. Always gotta eat."

"Well then, lead the way. That's where I'm headed too."

Sue welcomes them both to make plates, and Jacob knows that Jasmine's line about being kicked out of the kitchen was fabricated. He keeps his plate strategically placed at his waist, and by the time he has a sample of every one of Sue's appetizers, his arousal has faded. His girlfriend's father is a great destroyer of hard-ons. His aggression still prods at him from his gut, but Jasmine is downstairs, and he is upstairs, and he is equally as close to his love on the second floor. It keeps him balanced. He manages to hold a coherent conversation with Charlie and his father until the girls make their way down the stairs.

Jacob eagerly sweeps Bella into his arms. He is unable to resist kissing her breathless until he hears Charlie clear his throat loudly in the background. He sets Bella on her feet a little sheepishly but doesn't let her go. She just smiles at him indulgently and reaches up to cup his cheek with her small palm. He nuzzles into the comforting touch before pulling her into his lap as he sits. He tucks his nose into her hair and inhales deeply, and his wolf purrs in satisfaction. It's okay. Everything's going to be okay.

Leah quirks a brow at him from across the room. "If you're not careful, Swan, he's going to follow you into the bathroom when you try to go pee. Give the girl some breathing room."

Bella just smiles happily from her position pressed up against Jacob's warmth. "I don't mind. I don't mind one bit." In a quieter voice, she asks him, "You okay?"

"Yeah," he mumbles into her hair. "Jasmine's downstairs. Same thing happened again when I saw her. I might have busted in all caveman on you if I hadn't crashed into your dad on my way up."

Leah narrows her eyes at him. "You defile my bedroom like you defiled Sam's table and I'll rip off your balls before I strangle you."

Bella giggles, turns to look at him and runs a hand through his hair. "You know, I really don't mind it so much when you go all caveman on me."

He grins at her for a second before his gaze lands on the leather cuffs she still wears. His expression falls. "Well, there's cave man, and then there's neanderthal."

She tips his chin up with her fingers so he looks her in the eye. She wouldn't normally talk about this with so many wolves around to hear, but Jacob needs to hear it. "I love it when you touch me, Jake. You'll never hurt me. I know that." Her voice drops even lower. "Not more than I like, anyway."

Jacob thinks about how rough Bella likes it and draws in a ragged breath as his waning erection leaps back to attention. Bella can feel it pressed against her hip, and she bites her lip, dropping her gaze to his own full lips. "Jesus, Bells. I'm not going to make it until I can get you alone. Not at this rate."

She reaches up to trace his bottom lip with her thumb. "Well, you're just going to have to. Having an audience is not one of my kinks," she says with a smirk.

That is the position they are in when Seth, Brad, and Jasmine emerge from the basement. Seth is complimenting his cousin on her lovely singing voice when she turns forward and sees Bella curled up in Jacob's lap. Bella glances up when the door opens and sees Jasmine's expression visibly fall before she plasters a pleasant smile on her face and walks directly over to Rachel to introduce herself.

As Jasmine and his sister chat, Jacob holds Bella stiffly against him. He resists the inexplicable urge to tuck her behind him, to keep his own body in between hers and Jasmine's. Bella leans her head against his shoulder and strokes his arm lightly with her fingers. "You okay?" she feels the tension in the cords of his muscles under her hand.

"Just stay with me, please?" his voice is unnaturally shaky.

"Of course," she murmurs. She keeps her hands on his skin since she can tell that it calms him. She tries not to wiggle in his lap, as she can tell just how hard he remains under his jeans, and she doesn't want to start something in front of everyone. But he needs her, she knows it, and she doesn't plan on letting him go. Everyone gives them a wide berth. They are wrapped up too intimately with one another to look like they might be ready to engage in chit chat with anyone else. Jasmine, in particular, reads their body language loud and clear and keeps her distance. Bella examines her from across the room. She catches the frequent glances Jasmine throws their way. The other girl is only a couple inches taller than her. Her skin is a little lighter than Jacob's, and rather than having pin straight hair like Leah's, hers has a natural wave, but is every bit as thick, shiny, and black. Her breasts and hips are bigger than Bella's, and her waist just a little thicker. Her lips have a sensuous curve to them. Most startling are her bright green eyes, unexpected in contrast to her otherwise classical Native American features. Bella looks studiously away when she sees Jasmine glance back at her with a similarly appraising eye.

Gradually, the rest of the pack filters in. There is a brief squeal of excitement when Embry arrives with his sometimes-girlfriend Julie, who hasn't seen her old friend Jasmine since she left La Push when she was eight years old. The two girls reunite in the Clearwaters' family room, so Jacob takes the opportunity to get another plate from the kitchen. Bella still hasn't eaten anything since he had her trapped on the couch.

Everyone is momentarily distracted when Paul arrives with Elle. They all stop and watch Rachel greet her with a smile and a Black family bear hug. The startled girl quickly gets past her surprise and hugs Rachel back. After a brief pause, Rachel reaches toward Paul for a briefer embrace, and his nervous expression softens at the touch. Rachel engages both of them in conversation until Jared and Kim arrive, and Jared introduces Elle to Kim. The five of them wander into the kitchen, talk flowing easily, while Leah and Brad sit tucked into a corner of the dining room laughing together in a conversation with the adults.

Seth settles in next to Jacob. Jacob has been quiet for several minutes, absorbing the discussions around him.

"So?" Seth addresses them both.

"So..." Bella answers uncertainly.

"This is a setup for a shitstorm. Oh, sorry," Seth apologizes to Bella.

She shakes her head. "Don't apologize. You're right."

"I didn't think of it before, and my mom was so set on having this party. You know, it's been just depressing around here since my dad died, and who were we to deny her a little life in the house? But getting Paul, Rachel, and that girl here, with whatever is going on with Jasmine, and Leah's here with Brad, with Emily and Sam on their way. It's like a powder keg, and everyone's got matches!"

"I promise I won't attack Jasmine in your house," Jacob promises solemnly. He is trying to joke, but they can both hear the lack of humor in his tone.

Seth looks at Bella nervously. She says, "It's okay, Seth, I know. How is she doing? Jasmine, I mean. Not Leah."

Seth looks at his hands. "Uh, she was kind of bummed that you ran off from the video game," he tells Jacob.

"I heard," Jacob says. He looks as uncomfortable as Seth does. "They're talking about me right now, actually. Her and Julie. In the next room."

Bella can't hear, of course, but she knows anyway. She recognizes the looks that Jasmine has been shooting at them all evening. She looks curious, sad, and clearly jealous, but there is no malice in her gaze. "She has a thing for Jake, doesn't she?"

Seth nods and looks away. "But Julie and Embry are telling her how you two are joined at the hip."

Bella shrugs. "You know, I really don't care as long as she looks but doesn't touch." It isn't entirely true. She does have a little jealous coal burning in the pit of her belly, but it isn't as if Jacob reciprocates Jasmine's little crush. Although his persistent arousal around her is disturbing.

Jacob frowns harder and Seth explains. "Good. Then you won't mind too much that she's moving back. She's just telling Julie now."

Bella doesn't hear the words, but she does hear Julie's high pitched squeals of excitement. Her stomach and Jacob's both begin to churn with discomfort. Jacob states firmly, "Then I have to get this under control. Otherwise I'm not safe to be around her. I haven't felt so close to phasing uncontrollably since I first started shifting."

"What do you think it is about her?" Bella asks.

"I have no idea, and it's going to drive me crazy," Jacob huffs in frustration. "But my gut just says something's off. You don't feel it?"

Seth shakes his head. "No. But I'm the guy who liked Edward, so maybe I'm not the best judge."

"Your sister hasn't said anything? Brady?"

"Nah. Jasmine gets along with everybody. Maybe you just don't like how she's crushing on you, Jake."

"That doesn't normally make me want to attack a girl, Seth."

Bella rubs soothing circles into his arms. "Just be careful, Jake."

Jacob and Seth continue to eavesdrop on the conversation in the next room as Jacob resists the urge to grind his groin into Bella's soft body. Then Rachel emerges from the kitchen with Elle at the same time Sam and Emily open the front door. There is a clear view of the dining room, and the very first thing they spot upon entering is Brad lifting Leah's hair away from her neck and kissing it lightly, tickling her, such that she laughs and squirms playfully away. Sam freezes and his jaw hardens. Emily, on the other hand, looks thrilled. She immediately drags Sam over to say hello.

Leah notices them before Brad does. She leans away when he moves in to kiss her again, placing a hand on his chest. "Someone is coming over to meet you." She points over his shoulder at the approaching couple but cannot force herself to make eye contact with either of them. She forces herself to look at Emily's crooked, optimistic smile as Brad turns around, slipping his left arm around her waist. "This is Emily. She's one of my second cousins."

Emily shakes Brad's hand warmly. "It's so nice to meet you! Leah has been sort of tight lipped about you, but I have a feeling you're someone special."

Brad looks at Leah, amused. "So you're not coming home and talking about how wonderful I am?"

Leah shakes her head and feigns seriousness. "My mother taught me that if I don't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all." She breaks into a smile and leans further into him when he laughs at her joke. Brad turns to Sam, whose expression is carefully neutral. Brad sticks out his right hand to shake Sam's.

Smoothly, Leah says, "And this is Emily's fiancé Sam."

Sam slowly shakes Brad's offered hand, never taking his eyes off Leah. Emily chatters happily away with Brad while Sam remains silent. Leah breaks into the conversation at appropriate moments, but it is clear how uncomfortable she is. She has gotten so used to avoiding Sam whenever possible, or putting on her prickly, defensive demeanor around him, but she is entirely unused to acting in such a manner around Brad. With Brad, with Bella, Seth, Jacob, and her friends in Port Angeles, she feels like she can return to the Leah she remembers being. The edge to her humor is shaper. She is certainly more cynical. She is always going to look before she leaps now instead of rushing headlong into anything. But instead of feeling like a shell of a human, an unnatural freak surrounded by tragedy, she is starting to feel like herself again, albeit, a wiser, more sober self.

But being here, stuck between the opposing forces of her life, is terribly awkward. It certainly doesn't help that Sam, the same man who hasn't been able to look her in the eye for over a year, won't stop glaring at her now.

Brad, thankfully, doesn't say anything. Emily is torn between wanting to pull Sam aside and wanting to reconnect with Leah. Leah is unfailingly polite when they see each other, clinically so, has said that Emily is forgiven, but hasn't given her even a glimpse of the previous warmth the two girls used to share. And Emily finally sees an opportunity.

Thankfully, Brad can carry the conversation with Emily. He wanders off with her to the kitchen, insisting she enjoy some of Sue's appetizers before they disappear. Leah turns to follow, but Sam stops her with a hand on her arm.

Leah freezes. She remembers the last time he touched her with perfect clarity. It was the day her broke her heart. For once, they were alone in the house. They were sitting on the couch in her living room, the one she can see out of the corner of her eye. She had been trying to finish some homework before Emily was due to arrive. He had been taking the opportunity to distract her, brushing her hair over her shoulder and peppering the back of her neck with kisses, just inches away from the skin where Brad just touched his lips. A knock had sounded at the front door, the same door they walked through only minutes ago. She had risen to answer it, and he had grabbed her hand and pulled her back down. She had laughed and protested that she needed to let Emily in. He had told her to wait just one second, had buried his fingers in her thick hair and drawn her in for a sweet kiss. Then she stood up to open the door, and Sam has not touched her since. She had tried, naturally reaching for his hand like she always did, but he kept himself just out of range until he bolted out of the house. When he returned that night, she had held her hand toward him to draw him in, but he looked at her as if she had offered him the sharp edge of a knife. She had tried for days to get him to let her back in, but couldn't even get close enough to put a hand on his shoulder. And their skin hasn't touched since.

She stares at his hand in disbelief, too startled to react, too surprised to say anything at all. She faintly registers everyone except Brad and Emily staring at them.

Sam's voice is barely audible as he recalls the exact same moments that she does. "Is that all I am to you? Your cousin's fiancé?"

She takes a deep breath and turns to face him. "You'd prefer I give him the whole story, then?" she asks with a quirk of her brow.

"Of course not. But you make me sound like I'm barely an acquaintance. Are you just going to pretend there is nothing between us?"

She shakes her head and extricates herself from his grasp. "I've spent all kinds of time pretending to myself, wishing to myself, for things that don't exist. I'm done pretending."

She stalks off. He wants to yell after her that she wasn't pretending. That love, real love, existed between them, and that he knows it still does. That he can feel it beating in his chest. That he never planned to be standing here tonight, watching her walk away, her cousin wearing his ring, her hand slipping into that of another man's. That his plan was to be on his honeymoon with her at this very moment. That she should have been locked in a hotel room with him, not some other guy. That he hasn't forgotten. But his imprint closes his throat. So he watches as Leah aims her million dollar smile at someone else until Seth appears at his side with a beer.

Seth gives him a forced smile and the bottle. Emily keeps glancing back at him, so Seth gives her a nod and tips his own beverage toward her in greeting. With false calm, Seth asks, "What the fuck are you doing?"

The profanity coming from the kind, sweet boy startles Sam into looking away from Leah in order to meet Seth's gaze. "Excuse me?"

Seth shakes his head ruefully. "You know, after I found out what happened, I didn't blame you for what happened between you and Leah. Even Leah didn't blame you once she found out. But you know, there's still time for us to change our minds. You're doing a pretty good job making that happen right now, actually." Sam looks back at Leah. Brad's arm is draped over her shoulders. He stares at the sight.

"I never wanted this," Sam says quietly.

"I know. Leah knows. But what this looks like now? The trouble you're giving her now, when she's finally moving on, finally finding a shred of happiness for herself, well, it sort of looks like you're trying to make sure she stays miserable."

Sam looks deeply pained. "I don't want her to be miserable. You have to know that. She has to know that. I want her to be happy."

"Then act like it!" Seth hisses, and Sam finally breaks his gaze away from Leah to look at her younger brother. The young man is so forgiving and good natured that he sometimes forgets that he is as protective of his sister as she is of him.

Sam looks back into the kitchen sees Emily looking at them in concern. As her eyes meet his, Sam forgets what he is thinking about, and for a second, he can't see anything else in the room. It might as well be empty. He blinks, refocusing his eyes, and sees Leah looking between them with a resigned, flat expression. Oh god. He's done it again. Leah saw it. She saw him forget all about her again. How many times has she had to look at that very expression on his face?

Emily smiles at him and waves him over. He doesn't think he has anything to say to Leah that won't upset her, and he isn't certain he can be civil to Brad. But Emily wants him, so he goes. He manages to carry on a stilted, unfocused conversation only by keeping his grip on Emily tight. She keeps him somewhat grounded. His frustration is keen, and he needs the touch of her skin even more than usual. So he finds himself not just holding her hand, but grasping her rather tightly against his chest.

Seth plops back down next to Jacob and Bella, sighing heavily and running his hand through his hair.

Jacob turns to his friend. "Everything okay?"

"What's wrong with him? First he tries to make her feel bad about bringing a date to her own party, then he flaunts his imprint in front of her face? I'm getting sick of it."

Bella looks at Seth in surprise. "I didn't know you felt so strongly about it, Seth."

"I know he's not trying to be malicious, but he just keeps hurting her. Over and over again."

"How much of a choice does he have in the matter?"

Jacob tilts his head to the other end of the room where Rachel sits with Paul and Elle. "Well, look at them. Want to know? Ask Paul." He shakes his head in disbelief. "Who'd have thought that Paul looks like the reasonable one in the room?"

Bella shifts her attention over. She hadn't been paying attention to them with Sam taking up her focus, not to mention Jacob seated stiffly beside her, leaning into her touch. She examines their body language, unable to hear their discussion over the general din in the house. Paul sits in between the two girls, glancing back and forth at them as they talk to one another. He looks surprisingly content. Periodically he breaks into the conversation to say something that makes them both laugh.

She would watch longer, but she is concerned about Leah. Sam seems to be holding Emily in front of him like a shield, and he keeps glaring daggers at Leah. She looks intensely uncomfortable, and finally Bella turns to Jacob. "I think I need to rescue Leah. Are you going to be okay here for a while?"

Jacob nods and releases his grip on her. He doesn't want to let go of her, but he also knows he is being ridiculous. He should be able to hang out at a friend's party without his girlfriend attached to him at all times. "Of course, baby."

Bella kisses his cheek before heading over to retrieve Leah, fabricating an excuse to pull her away from Brad, Emily, and Sam for a few minutes. The girls head upstairs so that Leah can get a chance to vent about Sam.

Almost as soon as Bella steps away, Jasmine materializes next to Jacob. He actually does a double take when he turns his head away from the stairs to find her sitting on the couch between him and Seth.

X-x-x-x-X


	13. Chapter 12

X-x-x-x-X  
New Year's Eve  
X-x-x-x-X

Jasmine smiles at him shyly. "Hi, Jacob."

He forces a returning smile. "Hey, how are you?"

"Really excited to be back. Did you hear that my folks are going to Japan?"

"Yeah, so you'll be staying with Brady?" Jacob's heart races in his chest, and not in a pleasant way. He feels keyed up and agitated again.

She nods and plays with her hair nervously. "Yeah. Timing's not great, you know, moving in the middle of junior year, but the thought of coming back here is way less intimidating that going to Tokyo."

"Oh, I don't know, Tokyo could be a fun adventure." He scoots away from her on the couch, turning toward her to make it look like he is just shifting positions instead of trying to get away from her. He looks over her shoulder to Seth, who is frowning and examining him carefully. Jasmine is blatantly ignoring her cousin and actually has her back turned to Seth, no small feat on the little couch.

"Maybe, but I guess I'm kind of a wimp. We'll have a bunch of our classes together, I bet." She looks excited by the prospect.

Great. He won't be able to concentrate on his schoolwork while trying to ignore the angry buzzing in the back of his brain. He fists the couch cushions beneath him, trying to work out some of his nervous energy on the furniture. "Probably," is the only response he can muster.

She gives him a warm smile that reaches her eyes. "It'll be nice knowing people instead of showing up in a brand new place. Maybe you can show me around?"

His breath catches in his throat. He has to stop himself from growling at her and mentally berates himself for his ridiculous reaction. This is absurd. This is a friendly, human girl asking him to show her their high school. Not an angry vampire trying to attack him. "Right. You should also try Embry and Quil. And Julie, of course. You'll know plenty of people."

"I know, it's a relief, actually. I was really nervous about moving away from my last school, but I already feel better about it." Jasmine continues chattering away, back still turned to Seth. He feels as if the air around his skin is charged with energy. There is a tingling sensation up and down his spine not unlike the warning sensation he gets when a vampire is near. His wolf whines for Bella. It feels like hours drag by when, in reality, only minutes pass. Jacob tries to figure out how to extricate himself from his conversation, attempting to smile at her without looking like his wolf is bearing its sharp teeth at her, and simultaneously listening to Leah's conversation with Bella elsewhere in the house, when Jasmine notices the goosebumps that had erupted all over his skin the moment Bella left his side. She asks, "Are you cold? You look chilly. You're shivering," and reaches out to touch his arm.

His dick twitches as soon as she makes contact. He immediately wants to leap backward out of range of her hand or just rip her arm off altogether. The opposing, violent desires end up neutralizing each other into no movement at all.

He forces himself to stand slowly. "Yeah, guess I am." The lie is ridiculous. She can feel just how hot his skin is underneath her fingers.

"Oh no, you're running a fever!" she exclaims.

He jumps at the opening she provides. "Yeah, I must be. I'm gonna go see if there's any tylenol anywhere. I don't feel so great." He bounds up the stairs and away from her. He can hear Leah talking in low tones with Bella. Thankfully, Leah sounds more irritated than hurt, so he doesn't hesitate to burst into Leah's room.

The girls look up at him in surprise. His words tumble out. "Sorry, I need Bella."

Leah rakes her eyes up and down his shaking form with concern. "Don't you dare phase in my room."

"I'm not gonna phase in your room," he says, clenching his fists at his sides.

She squints at him and then looks back at Bella, who is biting her bottom lip, and whose breathing is starting to become heavy like Jacob's. She can hear both of their hearts racing in the same rhythm. "Don't desecrate my room, either."

"I'm not gonna desecrate your room."

She stands. "Your fathers are both downstairs, remember?"

"I'm not going to bring them up here."

Leah steps into the hallway. "Half the people in this house have supersensitive hearing."

Bella blushes wildly, while Jacob says, "Turn up the music, then."

Leah rolls her eyes as she walks away. "I'm not covering for you if Charlie comes up here, but I will laugh if he shoots you in the ass."

As soon as she is out of sight, Jacob pounces on Bella, shoving her back onto Leah's bed and ravaging her mouth with kisses. He grinds his erection between her thighs until he hears Leah call out, "Remember what I said about my room!"

He growls in frustration and hoists Bella up without setting her on her feet. She wraps her legs around him and he carries her to the hallway. He grips her ass with his palms and presses her core to his. He heads for the bathroom until he realizes there is someone inside it, so he enters the nearest empty room, Seth's. He steps in and shoves the door closed with his foot. Faintly, from the first floor, he hears Seth groan, "Oh, come on!"

So instead of throwing her down on Seth's bed or bending her over Seth's desk or dresser, he traps her against the bedroom door and attacks her mouth. His kisses barely qualify as kisses. They are bites, nips, and sucks. He plunders her mouth with his hot tongue. He growls in frustration at her denim clad legs, setting her down long enough to whisper harshly, "Why don't you wear skirts more often?" and yank her pants down and away, struggling to get her shoes off in the same movement.

He doesn't bother to take off her shirt. Instead he kneels so that he can press his nose to the front of her panties, inhaling deeply. He moans, "Oh god, you want it almost as bad as I do, don't you?"

Bella mumbles, "Mmm hmm." The connection between them has her instantly ready for him despite the fact that he has done almost nothing to ready her body for him. So he swipes her panties to the side and shoves three fingers inside her. Neither of them can hold back sex-drenched moans at the contact. Downstairs, someone turns up the volume of the music.

Bella lets her head fall back against the door. Her legs feel like jello. All the nerve function in her body has suddenly been redirected to her aching pussy. She gasps as he strokes and pumps his fingers. He groans, "Jesus, how can you already be so wet?" and curls his fingers as her arousal trickles down his hand and the inside of her thigh.

"God, Jake." Her fingers claw against the wood behind her, and her knees very nearly buckle. She grabs the door handle for support. With his free hand, Jacob shoves her shirt up, snarling when he is unable to get it off successfully, and he keeps pumping. The heel of his hand grinds against her clitoris. His own cock throbs between his legs in time with the rocking of her pelvis.

Jacob stares up at her from his position at her feet. She is the sexiest thing he has ever seen. "I need you, Bells," he whispers.

"You... oh... oh... you have me... unh... Jake!" she gasps and struggles to stay upright.

He needs more of her skin exposed. She looks wild pressed up against Seth's bedroom door, but he wants to see more of her flesh. "Off," he spits out. "I want to see you," he orders, so she wiggles out of her shirt. He pulls the cup of her bra down just far enough that he can draw one nipple into his mouth, and he bites at it harshly. Bella thrashes against him and comes in a sudden, violent climax, wailing out her pleasure.

In a flash, he release her breast so that he can silence her cry with his own mouth. He slips his hand out of her body, unbuttons his fly just far enough to yank his straining erection out, lifts her up by her buttocks, and slides all the way inside her.

"Fuck... Fuck... Your pussy, Bells... It's so... You're so... Oh god."

She is still climaxing when he enters her, and he barely manages to restrain himself from losing it completely. He holds still as she rides out her first orgasm on his pulsing shaft.

She gasps incoherently and begs him for nothing and everything all at once, her whole body shaking, her legs locked around his waist, her head smacking against the door. "You're... You... Oh... So much... Mmm... Please... Ahhh... Jake..." He is huge and hard, and no matter how many times they do this, she burns. Pain becomes pleasure in her haze of Jacob.

Eventually she is able to focus enough to look at him again. When she opens her eyes, she finds him staring at her, mouth dropped open, as he gasps and vibrates in place, buried inside her body. "Are you ready for more, baby? Because I can't wait any longer. I gotta... I gotta... Please... Unhh..."

She nods and hitches her legs higher around his middle. He takes the hint and slides his arms down one at a time so that her knees are hooked on top of his arms, opening her fully and sliding her down on him as far as she can go. She wraps her arms around with him and hangs on for dear life. She is so, so full with him. It blazes, it aches, and she cannot get enough. She gasps when the motion bumps his pelvic bone against her clitoris. "Jake! You're so... Oh god... You're so... God... Deep inside..." She is as incoherent as he is, but her broken words of pleasure only serve to inflame him further. He breaks out in a sweat trying to stay in control.

"Please... Bells, Please... Fuck... I gotta... I have to..." He needs to pummel her body into the door behind her, but he can't string five words together to ask. He knows how big he is, feels how tight she is, and he doesn't want to push her boundaries of pain farther than she can stand.

"Yes, yes," is all she gets out before he backs out a few inches and slams home again.

It is blissful. But it is also loud. Seth's door shakes and knocks with the singularly distinctive sound. So Jacob hoists her away from the door and walks just a few feet away to a free wall. Each step shifts his enormous cock within her, and she cries out in pleasure with the movement. He can feel just how much she loves the sensation. So before he braces her against the sturdy surface, he grasps her by the buttocks, lifts her up, then slides her back down. She breathes, "Oh my god..."

She sinks her nails into the back of his neck, and he hisses with pleasure. He lifts her back up, then slides her down slowly. So slowly, so that she can feel every single inch of him. His girth, his heat, his love. "Jake," she whispers his name. He does it again. "Jake," she repeats. And again. "Jake." This time her voice is thick with tears.

He pauses and leans her against the wall gently. "What's wrong, honey?" he murmurs against her lips.

"Not wrong," she breathes, so he moves in her again. "So... Oh... So right, Jake. Mmm... So right. Ah!"

A tear slips down her cheek, and he kisses it away before he starts thrusting again. "You feel... so... so... ahhh... good," he answers in gasping breaths.

"Yeah," she pants. "Yeah." The fabric of his pants rubs against her buttocks with each deep thrust. His cotton tee is soft against her belly. Her underwire rubs at her delicate skin. She is overwhelmed by sensation.

Jacob peers at the passionate, wanton woman in his embrace. He couldn't ask for anything better than this. One breast still peeks over the edge of her bra, the cup crumpled beneath it where he grasped at her flesh. He wants it in his mouth again. So he lifts her entirely off his cock, draws her nipple back into his mouth, and suckles at her. "You taste so good," he growls. His breath washes over her damp skin and causes ripples of pleasure to spread across her chest.

Then he lowers her back onto his cock and starts slamming into her in earnest. She bites her lip to keep her from wailing out loud, and he buries himself in her again and again. The rapid pace, his frenzied need, his incredible size, his amazing strength, his boundless love. He overwhelms her with passion, and she comes around him again.

He holds on as long as he can. He needs a release desperately, but he wants her climax to last as long as possible. So he throbs and thrusts and pulses inside her and he feels like a god because she keeps coming and coming. And when it is just too damn much he barely manages to choke out, "I love you," before he plunges in as far as he can get, grips her against him as tightly as he can manage, and explodes over and over again, bathing her cervix in stream after stream of his cum.

She pants and gasps her recovery, letting go of his neck to run her hands through her hair. He keeps his face buried in her neck and his body deep in her until a knock startles them at the door.

"Charlie's starting to wonder, and Seth wants to kill you," mutters Jared on the other side before he disappears.

They hurriedly separate, albeit reluctantly, as Jacob could happily bend Bella over Seth's dresser and take her again. He helps her make herself look presentable again, as the tangled state of her hair and wrinkled clothing would otherwise give them away, before heading downstairs. Bella goes first, while Jacob leaps out Seth's window in an attempt to fool Charlie. He sprints to his garage to retrieve a case of soda, races back in no time at all, and enters through the back door. He holds the case aloft and announces, "We were getting low, and this is my favorite kind. Do you mind if I stash it with the others?"

Sue gives him a smile. "Thanks Jacob, I appreciate you grabbing more." Jacob make certain to walk by Charlie, who is staring quizzically at him from the other side of the kitchen. He hopes his ruse was successful.

When he enters the living room, he sees Leah and Brad huddled together, laughing at him while Seth scowls. Seth whispers harshly, "You suck! I have to fumigate my room now!"

Chagrined, Jacob says, "Sorry, we didn't use your furniture or anything."

Seth rolls his eyes. "Then I just can't walk on the floor, huh?"

Jacob frowns and tries to figure out what to tell Seth. "Actually your floors are okay too."

Seth looks perplexed but decides that he doesn't want to think about it anymore. "Whatever, screw you guys," he mutters.

Jacob's sensitive ears pick up what Brad thinks is a private whisper, "They're almost as bad as we are!"

Leah murmurs back, "They're worse."

He sniggers back, "Tell that to the people who own the coats we ruined in the checkroom!"

Leah grins and retorts, "It's not my fault that the coat check girl was off getting high. It was her responsibility to protect the jackets, not mine!"

"I left her a big tip, anyway."

"Good. It was worth it."

"Not like the utility closet at the arena?"

"Hey, your ass wasn't the one chafing against hard concrete. But that was worth it, too!"

Brad laughs and tugs her close, tucking his face into her neck. As soon as Brad isn't looking her in the eyes, Leah allows a little melancholy to show. Jacob soon figures out why. From the next room, Sam stares rigidly ahead looking distinctly pained. He obviously heard the whole exchange as easily as Jacob did. Jacob then looks around for Bella and Jasmine. Jasmine isn't in the living room, but he soon hears her in the dining room. She, too, is unaware that the entire pack can hear her conversation. She is whispering to Julie about Sam, Emily, and Leah. From her words, it is clear that she had not met Sam before, but had certainly heard his name. She did not know Emily before tonight since she is on Sue's side of the family rather than Harry's. Julie gives her the gossipy, half-true rumors that have flown around the reservation like wildfire ever since Sam dumped Leah for Emily. He hears Quil and Embry break in occasionally, attempting to make the whole thing sound less sordid, but they can't really explain anything without giving too much away.

Jacob shakes his head and goes to find Bella. She is in the basement, smiling and chatting with Rachel as they both watch Paul and Elle take a turn at Rock Band. Paul has a terrible but enthusiastic singing voice, the better with which to make the girls laugh. Jacob settles in next to his girlfriend. He still feels a low level of arousal humming through his body, but the agitation that his wolf felt at Jasmine's presence has been tamed by the touch of the girl under his arm. The conversation ebbs and flows, and Jacob thinks the evening is turning out better than he expected considering Jasmine's close presence, when Emily appears at the top of the stairs. She gestures for Rachel to follow her. Rachel stands, curious, and follows Emily upstairs.

Emily, knowing about the pack's sensitive ears, moves as far away from everyone else as possible, out to the back porch. With a gentle but pained expression on her face she asks, "What are you doing, Rachel?"

Rachel tilts her head at Emily. "Enjoying the holiday with my family. And you?"

Emily shakes her head. "You know what I mean. What are you doing to Paul? This isn't what he wants."

"How do you know what Paul wants?"

"I've been in your shoes, Rachel. He's hiding his pain from you since he doesn't want to make you feel bad. But this isn't what he wants. That girl isn't what he wants. And she can't be for him what you can be."

"And what's that?" Rachel asks.

"She can't replace you. I know it doesn't seem fair, being stuck here forever. I know that. You had plans. I understand that. But you have to think of Paul."

"Who else do you think I'm thinking of if not Paul?" Rachel starts to get annoyed. "And who says she's supposed to replace me? No one's replacing me. I'm right here. I'm me, she's her. And Paul's having a pretty good time tonight."

Emily shakes her head again. "He's faking it for you. He doesn't want her. He wants you. He needs you. She can't ever be for him what you can be, don't you understand?"

Rachel frowns at the ground. Is Emily right? Or is she just validating her own decisions in her mind? "Paul and I aren't the only ones in the equation, Emily. I was already with someone before Paul. Other people matter too."

Emily's face falls. She knows that Rachel refers to Leah as much as she refers to Trevor. "But Trevor can be happy without you. You're not his other half. Paul can never have that with anyone else, ever. Who are you to deny him?"

Rachel looks Emily right in the eyes. Softly but firmly she says, "I care about Paul. I really do. More than you do, in fact. More than anyone else here, actually. And he deserves to have his free will returned to him. Enough of his life has been dictated to him because of shifting and monsters and danger. He deserves to know what else is out there. He deserves the chance to live his life the way he wants to, and not just the way he is told he has to. And I deserve that too. I'm not going to abandon him. I'm not going to walk away and never look back. I'm going to be there for him in a way I can live with. And this way I can do it freely and without reservation. If I just accept the imprint blindly, if I close my eyes to the rest of my own life and the rest of his, if I let the imprint dictate the rest of our lives, I'll resent it. I'll resent him, somehow, under the mask of bliss. And he deserves better than that. So do I. Paul deserves to be happy, yes. But more than that, he deserves to be free."

She leaves Emily standing by herself, stunned and confused. She doesn't know how long she stands outside, the damp air soaking into her bones, the chill in the air permeating her body. Emily feels lost, adrift after talking with Rachel.

She visibly shakes herself. She knows what she needs. She needs her Sam. The man the gods have chosen for her. The man whom she completes. She walks through the house to find him. She spots him before he sees her. What she sees stops her in her tracks. Sam is staring across the room with pain etched across his handsome features. Staring at his first love, the woman he first gave himself to, the woman he chose before his life turned upside down. Leah is laughing, her head bent toward her new beau. She looks stunning. What has Emily done?

Rachel doesn't notice any of their expressions. She has returned to the basement where Jacob, Collin, Brady, and Elle are playing a Bon Jovi song enthusiastically. "She's awfully sweet," Rachel begins, looking at Elle from across the room.

Paul nods. "She is. She's a good person."

Rachel keeps her eye on Elle. "Pretty, too."

"Yeah," Paul agrees hesitantly.

"She likes you," Rachel continues.

Paul speaks deliberately. "I know. We had chemistry going all the way back, from the beginning, and now we're friends on top of it."

"Can we go outside for a second?" She turns to him, and he allows her to lead him upstairs and onto the front porch. Emily still occupies the back. She sits on the bench and takes his hand in hers. They sit looking at the rain, hand in hand. Rachel's brain swirls with thoughts of Emily, Sam, Leah, Trevor, her mother, her father, her brother, and most of all, the man sitting beside her. She has grown to care deeply for him in the past few months. She struggles to find words. He allows her silence and peace, and he marvels at the way her hand fits into his. She scoots close to him to ward off the chill.

Finally, she turns to look him in the eye. "I need you to tell me something. I need you to be honest with me. Completely honest. Don't tell me what you think I want to hear, don't try to make me happy or take it easy on me. Just give me the truth."

He nods at her, anxiety clouding his expression. He knows what is coming. "Okay."

"Could you be happy with her? Or anyone? Not just settling, I mean. Not just good friends. Really, genuinely happy. Passion and fire and all that amazing stuff that relationships are made of. Not just a compromise. Could you have that with someone who isn't me?" He stares at her silently. "The truth, now. Please don't just tell me what you think I want to hear."

It isn't the answer to her question, but he needs her to know. Slowly, deliberately, he says, "I love you, you know."

She gives him a genuine smile, and gently says, "I know you do. I love you too. That wasn't the answer to my question." At her declaration, his heart stops, pauses, and restarts.

He lets out nervous laugh. "Can I ask you one question before I answer?"

"Of course you can."

He takes a deep breath. "What happens if I say no?"

She never breaks his gaze as she answers in a shaky breath, "Then I break up with Trevor. And if you want, we can be together. Really together."

His breath wooshes out of his lungs and he closes his eyes. After a full minute of silence, he says quietly, "Do I still have to tell you the truth?"

She laughs, "Yes, you do."

He opens his eyes and looks directly at her. "Then the truth is yes, I could." He cups her chin in his hand. "But I will never, ever stop loving you."

"You don't have to stop. I don't plan to. Thank you for being honest," she says as he lowers his hand.

"Can I get a reward for my honesty?" She sees a twinkle in his eyes.

"Yes, I suppose you earned it."

He brushes a lock of hair behind her ear. "Kiss me, then."

Her eyes soften, and she leans forward. Hesitantly, she presses her soft lips to his. He furrows his brow and holds still. When it becomes clear that she isn't pulling away, he slides one arm around her waist and cups the back of her skull with the other. He deepens the kiss, his tongue searching for hers, and groans when she parts her lips. He kisses her with everything he has since he doesn't know if he will ever get the chance again. Her lips are soft, warm, and perfect, and he has never tasted anything better in his life.

When she finally breaks away, she lets him lean his forehead against hers, and she pants shallow breaths. Both of them keep their eyes closed, not quite ready for the moment to end.

Eventually she pulls back. "They're all eavesdropping, aren't they?"

He laughs. "Yep."

"Then they might as well know that that was the best kiss of my whole life."

He squeezes her hand. His voice is husky. "Mine too."

"Are you going to take Elle home now?"

"Guess so," he sighs.

"She's a good person, and she really likes you. I can tell."

"Yeah. I like her, too."

"And she's very pretty," she nudges him in the arm.

"Yeah, yeah."

"And she's been throwing you 'the look' all night long."

"The look?" He sounds amused.

"Are you gonna make me say it?" she jokes.

"Definitely!" he laughs.

"Fine." Rachel rolls her eyes. "She wants you."

"I know," he grins lasciviously.

"So what are you still doing here?" she asks.

"Well," he waggles his brow at her, "If you're, like, the perfect woman for me, Miss Imprint, you'll offer to come home with the both of us any minute now."

She snorts and smacks him in the arm. "Yeah, right! Get out of here, you horn dog. She's ready, you haven't gotten any in months, which has got to be some kind of record for you. Get going."

He stands, but he doesn't walk away until she stands with him, and he pulls her into a gentle hug. He kisses the top of her head before turning inside. He walks past Emily to retrieve Elle, who turns to him happily. The ball is about to drop. Emily, one of the few people in the room without the supernatural hearing necessary to know what transpired outside, stares at Paul and Elle in confusion as they hold hands together and turn toward the television. Her eyes widen, and she looks back at Rachel as the countdown begins.

"Ten, nine..." Rachel leans against the wall of the living room next to her father.

"Eight, seven..." Bella leans into Jacob.

"Six, five..." Brad pulls Leah toward him.

"Four, three..." Embry draws Julie into his arms.

"Two, one..." Jared grabs Kim.

"Zero. Happy New Years!"

Jacob tugs up Bella and locks his lips to hers fiercely. Jared smacks Kim loudly with a wet kiss. Embry pecks Julie lightly on the lips. Jasmine blinks at Jacob across the room until she sees Quil take her hand, kneel with an absurd flourish, and gallantly kiss the back of her hand with sly grin that makes her laugh. Sam forgets to kiss Emily as he glares daggers at Brad, who presses a soft, lingering kiss to Leah's lips. Emily doesn't notice that Sam hasn't kissed her since she is too busy staring at Paul's kiss with Elle. Rachel notices Emily's shocked look while she gives Billy a peck on the cheek, and everyone else is too surprised watching Charlie Swan awkwardly peck Sue Clearwater on the cheek to notice much else.

Jacob keeps kissing Bella.

Paul and Elle make their excuses and head out the door.

Jacob keeps kissing Bella.

Emily walks to the front window to watch Paul and Elle as they climb into his truck. Just as they reach it, Paul hoists Elle up. She wraps her legs around him as he presses her against the cab and kisses her deeply. Emily's mouth drops open further.

Jacob keeps kissing Bella.

Embry, Quil, and Julie pull Jasmine to the basement to play another round of Rock Band.

Jacob keeps kissing Bella.

Jared and Kim head to the kitchen to refill Jared's now empty plate.

Jacob keeps kissing Bella.

Collin, Brady, and Seth look at Jacob and Bella, roll their eyes, and head down to the basement.

Jacob keeps kissing Bella.

Brad asks Leah to step outside with him. They go to the empty family room. Sam hovers in the hallway around the corner, unable to pry himself away. Emily moves to stand with him but can't hear her cousin's conversation, so she wanders back into the kitchen.

Jacob keeps kissing Bella.

"Thanks for letting me come," Brad says to Leah as she leads him to a pair of armchairs facing one another.

She sits and smiles brightly up at him. "Of course! I'm so glad you could be here. And thank you for the amazing week in Seattle. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much."

Instead of sitting down across from her, Brad just kneels on the floor. "Me neither. And I'm pretty sure it's because I've never had such a good time. Last week, and tonight too."

"Well, I'm glad I could oblige. We put on a good show in the Clearwater house. Soap opera worthy drama going on in one end of the house, comedic level video game playing in the basement, my friends putting on a live sex show in my brother's bedroom. It's never boring here. Ever," she laughs.

"Wait, I know your friends Jacob and Bella can't keep your hands off each other, but I was joking earlier. There was no actual sex tonight, right? Their fathers are here. Didn't they just go make out?" He looks incredulously at her.

She nods at him, "They were totally getting it on upstairs when they snuck away for a few minutes."

"That was not 'a few minutes'," Brad protests with a snort.

"No, I guess not," she chuckles. "But it's a quickie by their standards. I'll bet you that they're still making out in the living room as part of the kiss at midnight."

Brad scrambles to peek out the door, and Sam barely gets out of the way without being spotted. Brad returns to Leah, and Sam can't seem to stay away. "You're right! They are! And her dad looks pissed, but his dad is laughing at them."

Leah nods smugly. This time Brad sits in the chair instead of kneeling at her feet, but he leans toward her to close the gap. "They remind me of us," he whispers. Leah bites back a joke when she sees the look in Brad's eye. "Lee, can I ask you something?"

Sam holds his breath from his position in the hall. Leah peers at Brad. "Sure."

"Come with me."

Leah blinks at him. "Excuse me?"

"Come with me. To Eugene. I know we didn't plan anything like this, I know I told you months ago I was moving. If I'd met you just a few months earlier, I'd be doing things completely differently. I'd stick around, or just go to Seattle, somewhere not so far away. But I didn't, and now I don't want to go, but there's no reason to stay in Port Angeles. None except you, that is." Leah keeps gaping at him, so he presses on. "I don't want to give you up. You're the most amazing girl I've ever met. Come with me."

Leah stares at him for a second longer before she recovers. "I'm tempted, Brad. I really am."

"Then say yes," he pushes.

"I want to, but I don't think..." she hesitates. Sam still holds his breath. "Can I think about it?"

He looks disappointed. "Sure, of course."

"I want to," she stutters, "It's just... I don't know..."

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I know I sort of sprung this on you. Take some time and think about it." She keeps blinking rather blankly at him, still too startled to really answer. He gives her a little smile and offers, "How 'bout I get us a couple drinks?"

She just nods without speaking. Brad moves to the kitchen.

Sam watches him pass, then slips into the room silently. "Lee Lee," he whispers.

"So you heard the whole thing, huh?" she says, not bothering to reprimand him about the use of her nickname or for eavesdropping.

"Don't go."

Without looking at him, she mumbles, "Why? What does it matter to you?" She cuts him off before he can answer with a sharp tone. "Anyway, now or later, whichever, I won't be here for much longer, I think you know that."

"But this is your home," he protests.

She looks up, mentally surveilling the only house she has ever lived in. "This is just a place. There are others. Better ones. I'm going to make myself a home somewhere else. Maybe in Oregon, maybe somewhere else."

"But you belong here," he argues.

"I used to think so, too," she says softly. "I used to think a lot of things."

"If I had known, Lee Lee..." he trails off, Paul, Rachel, and Elle in the forefront of his mind.

Tears well up in her eyes, but they do not fall. "Well, you didn't. And neither of you stopped to find out, did you?"

"I'm so sorry," he whispers brokenly.

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "I know you are. You always were. Pity is the overriding sentiment. I get that, and I'm ready for something else."

"No! No. You can't..." He needs to tell her. He needs her to know, but he can't figure out how to force the words past the imprint filtering everything in his brain. "I... I.. I need you to know that I'm still..."

She interrupts him before he can finish his sentence. "I know that too. What difference does it make? None. You've made that absolutely clear, so don't bother saying it."

"How can you say that?" The hurt cuts through his voice.

Her eyes blaze at him. "You tell me what difference it makes, and I'll let you say it. You tell me how it changes my life in any way for the better, and then you can say it."

He has no response and just looks at her, so she turns to walk away. "Please," he whispers.

"Hell. Just tell me one way it makes your life better," she answers.

_You remind me who I am. _The imprint blocks his throat. "Please don't go," he says.

She stops in the doorway. Her voice is quiet. "Give me one good reason not to."

He thinks, _Because I never stopped loving you and I need you near. If you stay, it means I haven't lost you. It means I won't completely lose myself. It means I won't forget the person I meant myself to be. _But what comes out of his mouth is, "We need you. Your brothers need you."

She scoffs. "Right. That's what I thought." She leaves him alone in the room.

X-x-x-x-X

Thanks to my beta, Babs81410.


	14. Chapter 13

X-x-x-x-X  
New Year's Day  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob yawns his way through patrol. Seth doesn't fare much better. _We should put doggy bowls full of coffee on all our back porches,_Seth quips.

_You guys do know how to throw a party, man. Not one dull moment. Next time you should invite a couple leeches, round out the guest list, let us loose on them. After all, no one came to physical blows last night. _

_Just verbal ones,_Seth sighs.

_Yeah. How's your sister doing? _

_Pretty pissed at Sam. Other than that, I'm not sure. You know, after she found out about imprinting, she stopped being quite so angry and started being mostly depressed. _

_I remember. I feel like an idiot that I didn't see past the bitchiness for what it really was. _

_Well, she did that on purpose, didn't she? She didn't want you or anybody else to pity her_, Seth reminds him.

_It worked, I guess. Do you know that I almost feel bad for Sam? Almost. Not quite. _

Tentatively Seth says, _He hung around last night. _

_What do you mean, he stayed late at the party?_

_No,_ Seth sighs. _He was in the woods outside the house. He left with Emily right after you did, but then he showed back up sometime late. I got up to take a leak and happened to look outside. He was sitting in the backyard, leaned up against a tree. _

_I wonder if Emily knows._

_I doubt it. It was really late, and he took off when he figured out I'd seen him. _

_You're probably right. She wouldn't have wanted him doing that, and if there's anything I know about Sam Uley, it's that he's fucking whipped. So if she'd been awake, he'd never have been able to do it._ Jacob sighs. _He should have figured out how he really felt about Leah a year ago. Not now. _

Seth asks, _Why now, do you think? After all these months. _

_Because she might leave. Because she's moving on. He didn't have to give her up, not really, when she was still so in love with him. But he understands that he could actually lose her now. He never really understood that before._

_Do you think it's too late for them, Jake? She used to be so happy with him. I want her happy again. _

_Don't get ahead of yourself, Seth. It's not as if he's gone and left Emily or anything. It's not like Leah wants him to._

_I can't even imagine him leaving her. You know, I never blamed her for anything, but now I see how Rachel is with Paul, and well…_

Jacob answers, _Maybe if Sam had never slashed up her face, she would have held out longer. _

For once, Seth allows a dark edge to creep into his voice. _My sister deserves better than both of them._

_Yeah. She does._

_I can't believe Paul left with that girl._

Jacob chuckles, _Rachel was pretty clear with him about what he should do. And it's not like she told him to go jump off a bridge or something. She assigned him a task he is usually well equipped to handle. _

_Girlfriend or not, she's been really good for him._

_And I have to give him credit. I was so pissed when he imprinted on her. I thought the life she wanted to live was over. But he's been really good to her too. Did you hear them talking? She actually said she'd dump that Trevor guy if Paul really needed her to. _

_I did hear that, _Seth answers. _I was shocked at his answer. _

_Me too. I didn't think he had it in him. It actually made me root for the guy, if you can believe it. But don't you dare tell him I said that! _

_Did you see the look on Emily's face when she saw him leave with Elle? Leah said a bird could have flown into her open mouth, and she wouldn't have noticed. I think Paul is her new favorite person._

Jacob laughs, _Uh oh, it's a sign of the impending apocalypse! Do you think she wants to leave with Brad? _

_Probably, wouldn't you if you were her? I love having her around, but I couldn't blame her for wanting to get out of here. _

_It's just a matter of time. As far as I'm concerned, she can go as soon as she says the word. Are the two of them coming today? _Jacob refers to the community center, where the elders have arranged for food and flat screen televisions to watch the bowl games. The party is expected to be a large one, not just limited to the pack.

_I don't know. They were both still asleep when I left. I think they were originally going to go, but after Brad surprised her about asking her to move with him, I'm guessing her answer will probably have something to do with what happens today. How about you?_

_Yeah. We'll stay as long as Bella wants to. I think she wants to be there for Rachel and Leah, if she comes. _

X-x-x-x-X

Rachel turns out not to need any moral support, but she enjoys Bella's company nonetheless. When Bella and Charlie arrive in the early afternoon, Rachel is seated next to Elle. The two girls are leaning together sharing a plate of hor d'oeuvres and laughing. Rachel waves Bella over, wiping a tear from her eye.

Rachel chuckles breathlessly and says, "Hey, Bella. I was just telling Elle about the first time I met Paul over the summer."

"You were?" Bella asks, surprised.

Elle nods knowingly. "Were you there?" she asks. At Bella's nod of assent, she lowers her voice. "I think I know that girl he was hitting on. Rachel couldn't remember her name, but she gave me the description. It must have been that slutty girl from Forks, right? Lauren?"

"Yeah, she was in my class," Bella replies.

Elle looks embarrassed for a moment. "Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. Is she one of your friends?"

Bella hurriedly answers, "No, not exactly, no. She doesn't really like me."

"Your boyfriend's hot, so I'll bet she can't stand you," Elle nods.

"Yeah, she was actually hitting on Jacob when I got to the beach that day. He was tripping over his own feet trying to get away from her. After that, she set her sights on Seth Clearwater." Bella isn't used to female gossip, but this is sort of fun. No wonder Billy and Charlie do this all the time.

"Not little baby Seth!" Elle answers.

"She had no idea how old he is," Bella clarifies. "Paul was the one who told her, and she was really embarrassed."

Rachel jumps in. "After that, they were kind of all over each other. They were practically going at it right there on the beach when I got there."

"That does sound like Paul, doesn't it?" Elle grins. Bells is a bit perplexed at the turn the conversation has taken. Is Elle dating Paul now or not? Elle continues. "At least, it sounds like the old Paul."

Rachel lowers her voice conspiratorially and asks Elle, "So did you get to see a bit of the old Paul last night?"

Elle smirks and answers, "Oh, you have no idea. Lately he's a perfect gentleman, but you know, sometimes you really don't want a gentleman."

Bella just has to ask. "So are the two of you..."

Elle looks at Rachel. "Honestly, before Rachel whipped him into shape, I'd have sooner dated Old Quil over Paul Lahote again. But this one put him in his place. After she knocked him down a few pegs, he grew up a ton. Definitely worth a second look."

"So what did he say about me?" Rachel is curious.

Elle blinks a few times, considering what to say. "Well, you already know he's head over heels for you."

Bella gawks at Elle. Rachel herself is surprised. "He said that?"

Elle shrugs. "Not in so many words. But he talks about you so much, and I know he's always going to see you in Seattle."

"Is that okay with you?" Rachel asks.

Elle looks thoughtful. "It's not like I was looking to get into something serious when he started coming around again, you know. And he made it clear he wasn't trying to get into my pants. I don't know, we started talking a lot. And he pays attention. He actually listens to me. Like, he's almost as good at listening as a girlfriend. Before, when we hooked up, I knew pretty quickly afterward that I was just a notch on his bedpost. But it was different this time around. He's like a whole different person now, and I know it's not all just an act to get me in the sack, since he made it clear that he didn't want that from me."

"Until last night," Rachel prompts.

"Mmm," Elle's mouth quirks upward. "Until last night. I don't know what you said to him, Rachel, but I think I owe you a thank you."

The girls bust out laughing, drawing the attention of most of the other guests in the room, including Paul who stands on the opposite side of the room in front of one of the football games next to Jared and Kim. Elle walks over to him. Paul tucks her under his arm while he shoots Rachel a wistful smile over his shoulder. She smiles gently back.

Bella and Rachel wander off to another room, far enough away that they won't be overheard. "So I take it you're okay?" Bella asks.

Rachel takes a big breath and nods. "I am. More importantly, I think he is too."

"Jacob told me you said you'd break up with Trevor if he needed you to."

Rachel gives her a small smile. "I did say that."

"Did you mean it?"

Rachel looks surprised. "Of course! I wouldn't have said so if I didn't. But I'm glad I don't have to. Trevor means a lot to me."

"Did you expect Paul to let you go?"

"I had no idea what he would say. But what Becca said to me really stuck. I was hanging on, and it was unfair."

"Is it weird to see him here with Elle?"

Rachel tilts her head and looks at the ceiling thoughtfully. "A little, I suppose. But they seem good together, don't you think? Mostly I want him to be happy. If the two of us just got together, I'd always wonder if he actually wanted it, or if it was just the crazy werewolf magic."

"But you think you could be with him, right?"

Rachel nods. "Now I do. The guy he was when I met him? Not so much. But he's grown on me a lot."

"So why now?" Bella asks.

"Everyone tells me he'd be the happiest with me, but when I look at him and Elle, I know that there isn't a single false thing about the two of them. Whatever they've got, even if it isn't as strong as what Paul and I have right now, and I know it isn't, not yet, it's real. I know neither of them is looking to get married or anything, not right now. But down the road, who knows? Whatever he has with her or with other women in the future, it'll be what he actually wants, and not just what's forced on him. If you love someone, you'll let them go to let them be happy, right?"

Bella considers this for a minute. If someone else could make Jacob happier than she could, would she be able to let him go? Somehow, she doesn't think she could be as graceful as Rachel is about it. The two girls rejoin the party until Jacob arrives in the late afternoon.

Bella launches herself at Jacob. It has only been a matter of hours since they parted, but she still gets a giddy rush when his eyes light up at the sight of her. She jumps into his waiting arms and he chuckles, "Hey beautiful. Long time no see."

"Mmm. You smell good," she notes, her nose buried into the side of his neck.

"Not as good as you," he answers. "And you wouldn't have said that half an hour ago. I was kind of filthy from patrol." He notices that they have built up a bit of an audience. The pack and their fathers are used to their displays of affection, but there are plenty of other people at the party. Unfortunately, his body doesn't care whether or not they are alone. Her display of enthusiasm and her soft body clinging to his produces an instantaneous reaction, and he hardens against her.

Bella realizes what is going on at the same moment he does. "People are staring, aren't they?" she whispers, her brown eyes growing wide.

"Yes. So you're saying I shouldn't just take you up against the wall next to the flat screen TV?" he jokes as he sets her back on her feet, but he doesn't let go of her, leaving his hands on her lower back. He is afraid that if she backs away, someone will see his arousal trapped between his thigh and his jeans.

She blushes and keeps her face turned toward him. "Much as I'd like that, I'd prefer a dozen witnesses or fewer."

Jacob can't stop his own involuntary reaction to the pink flush of her skin. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. He ducks his head toward her and whispers in her ear, sending tingles down her spine. "I can promise not to take off any of your clothing in front of these people, but I don't know if I'm capable of keeping my hands to myself." Slowly, he slides his hands down to cup her bottom. At that moment, he sees little Claire standing off to the side sucking her thumb and staring at them. "Hi Uncey Jay!" She grins when he spots her. Bella is immediately mortified and tries to spring away from him. Knowing that her body is the only thing blocking Claire's view of his crotch, he refuses to let go. "Watcha doin' wit' Auntie Bewa?" Claire asks.

For once, Jacob is speechless. Bella recovers before he does. "Jacob asked me to come close so he could tell me a secret," she answers before beckoning the little girl closer. She manages to twist around in Jacob's embrace, bends over awkwardly, and whispers, "Don't tell, but it's that you're the prettiest girl here."

Then she looks up and sees Quil glaring at them. Quil calls to Claire, "C'mon, sweetheart, let's go find you a snack." As he sweeps the little girl into his arms, he whisper yells, "Get a hold of yourselves! You're corrupting small children!" Behind him, Paul and Jared can barely contain their laughter, which is when Bella realizes the compromising position she is in, bent over at the waist, her behind pressing into Jacob's clothed erection as he grips her by the hips.

"Not intentionally," Jacob whispers back. His ears are bright red.

Jared hoots, "Get a room!"

Kim steps over to take Claire from Quil, joking, "Cut him some slack. If he lets go of her, everyone here is going to get a view of the snake in Jake's pants."

Claire immediately perks up. "Snake in Uncey Jay's pants?" she yells. "Wanna see!"

Paul and Jared collapse into hysterical fits of laughter as Jacob sees Billy, Charlie Swan and Claire's parents glaring at him from their seats near the television. Jacob's erection finally withers away, allowing him to stumble backward away from Bella.

Stifling her laughter, Rachel rescues a beet-red Bella, tugging her into the girl's bathroom, shooting a falsely stern look at her baby brother. Jacob unsuccessfully tries to tuck his enormous form into a shadowed corner as his girlfriend leaves him to his fate. In the bathroom, Bella leans with her back against the sink and hides her face in her hands. Rachel crosses her arms and notes with a smile on her face, "That was classic. It's creepy to think about my baby brother that way, but the humiliation he just suffered made it all worth it. Leah is going to be so pissed she missed that."

"I'm sure she'll get the replay in the pack mind," Bella mumbles.

"Ooh, the pack mind. Reason number three that I have second thoughts about ever sleeping with Paul," Rachel shudders. "Bad enough that a bunch of random guys would not only know what I look like naked, but probably get vivid replays of what my 'O' face looks like. Even worse that one of them would be my brother!" At Bella's horrified expression, Rachel realizes that Bella is in that exact situation and tries to backpedal. "Oh, gosh! I'm sorry! It was just a joke! I'm sure Jacob has good control."

"Yeah, right," Bella groans.

Rachel crosses the room, sighs, and pats Bella's arm comfortingly. "I know. What do teenage boys think about other than sex? At least it's probably flattering, right?"

Bella buries her face in her hands again. "You're not helping!"

Then Rachel wrinkles her nose. "Also, eww. Sex with my baby brother, eww! Just don't touch my baby brother and everything will be fine," she shudders.

Outside, Jacob is faring no better than Bella. At least she is hidden away. He shuffles over to Paul and Jared, whose jokes at his expense are infinitely preferable to Charlie Swan's death glare boring into his back. Eventually he is rescued by a 95 yard kickoff return for a touchdown on the big screen in the front of the room, and everyone's attention is finally diverted away from him. Bella, hearing the exclamations from the main room, finally emerges from the bathroom. She and Jacob make their way to the buffet, then carefully sit down several feet away from one another in the annex off the main room.

Searching for something distracting to discuss, Bella begins, "Jake. I want to talk to you about something before everyone else gets here." Any lingering arousal Jacob feels disappears in that instant. Bella's tone makes it clear that whatever she wants to discuss, he probably isn't going to like it. "I know this is hard for you, Jacob, but I really think we should consider starting a fund for the pack."

Jacob's tone is clipped. "It's your money, Bells. You can do what you want with it."

She tries to lean over to take his hand, but he stands up and begins to pace. "I want to be helpful," she explains.

He frowns, unable to stop himself from comparing himself to Edward Cullen. He thinks of his old rival and the existence that the vampire offered to Bella. The price was too high, certainly. She would have turned into a monster, but she would have gained power, wealth, and immortality in exchange. All things Jacob is in no position to give her. Jacob knows that Bella was always tempted by Edward's offer to show her the world. Jacob can give her his heart, soul, and body, but for now at least, those things are all stuck in La Push. The offer of Edward's money showcases all of his inadequacies. "We don't need help."

"You guys have done so much for me," she persists. "I feel like all I do is take and take, and now I have the chance to give back."

"We don't do what we do for payment. It's not about money, and it certainly isn't for that kind of wealth."

"Of course you don't!" she exclaims. "You do it because you want to help me, because you want to protect your home. I know that." He stops and stares out the window overlooking the nearest houses. It would take three or four of them to equal the size of the Cullen mansion, the home Bella intended to be hers. "But that doesn't mean that you don't deserve some compensation for the time you invest, the risk to yourselves, the strain on your families." Jacob doesn't have any argument against this and he knows it. He remains silent, so she continues. "Take Leah, for instance. This life has taken almost everything from her, Sam, her friends, her privacy, she doesn't have time to work, so she can't afford much other than Peninsula. Once she's free, she could go anywhere, do anything, if only she had the resources."

"Leah's not indigent, Bella, her mom's a nurse. Sue makes decent money on her own."

"Sue's a single mom trying to feed Seth and Leah," Bella says gently. "Of course she's making it work, but I'll bet you things would be easier if there was something extra coming in. Sam basically works seven days a week, no time off at all. When does he get a day off? I can help, Jake. I want to help."

Jacob knows the truth of Bella's words, and that she isn't trying to insult the tribe. But the words that ring in his ears are about Leah going anywhere and doing anything. Bella can go anywhere, can do anything, even without Edward Cullen's money. He knows that Peninsula Community College isn't what Bella always dreamed of. And Jacob has aspirations of going off to college and making something more of himself too. But right now, he can't see how his Alpha duties could possibly be compatible with leaving his home. Is he going to tie Bella down where she doesn't want to be, or is he going to have to let her go?

"I know you mean well, Bella," he can't keep the frustration out of his voice.

"So is it okay with you? I won't do it if it isn't all right with you." Jacob can't bring himself to say yes, so he just gives her a curt nod. "I'd like to talk to the council about setting up the fund sooner rather than later," she says tentatively.

There is no point in stopping her. His packmates have already enthusiastically endorsed her idea. And with or without a donation to the tribe, she still has an obscene amount of money of her own now. If she is going to use it to leave him, there isn't much he can do to stop her. "They're all here right now, anyway," he admits.

"Oh, gosh. You're right. Do you mind if I go find your dad and see what he thinks? I don't know the next time I'll be around when they're all together." He nods again without turning back to look at her. "Are you coming with me?"

"In a minute. I'll be there in a minute."

She senses he needs the time to himself, so she steps out the door. She doesn't see Jasmine slip in behind her.

The hairs on the back of Jacob's neck stand up, and his body stiffens with tension. He realizes she is there before she says anything. He doesn't turn around. He hears her shuffle her feet, trying to get him to notice her without having to say something. He wills her to go away as he shoves down the urge to growl at her.

"Everything all right? You look kind of stressed," she asks. She sounds sincere in her concern for him.

"Fine, thanks." He forces himself to turn around and smile politely. He examines her closely, objectively, and tries to determine what it is about her that aggravates his wolf, who itches to rush after Bella.

She smiles warmly back at him, genuinely pleased to be talking with him, even if he can't seem to be anything other than monosyllabic around her. But then she blurts out, "I'm sorry your girlfriend is being insensitive."

"Excuse me?" Jacob is startled enough by her statement that his aggression twists into confusion.

"I'm sorry, I swear I wasn't intentionally eavesdropping. But I heard her offer money to the council. I know it rubs you the wrong way." Jacob is alarmed. Just how much did Jasmine hear? He struggles to remember the exact content of their conversation. Nonplussed by his expression, she continues. "I mean, rich little white girl graces us with her presence and wants to throw some of her wealth at the poor folks on the Rez? It's a little insulting, isn't it?"

"No, no, it's not like that, she's not that way at all," he protests.

"What's it like, then?" she asks quizzically.

He can't figure out what to tell her. He shakes his head. "She's not rich, or at least, not yet." It is a technically, he knows. It is only a matter of days or weeks before Bella will be absurdly wealthy. He continues anyway. "Her dad's a cop and her mom's a schoolteacher. And she practically grew up here." Which is a bit of an exaggeration, but Jacob knows that La Push feels as much like Bella's home as Charlie's house does.

Jasmine quirks a brow. "No she didn't, she just visited over the summer."

He squints at her. "You remember that?"

"Oh, uh," she stutters. "I remember everybody, Jacob. The other kids in our classes, your older sisters, Quil and Embry, the kids my cousins were friends with," Jasmine hopes he doesn't call her bluff. She has no idea who Leah, Seth, and Brady were friends with, and other than Jacob and her very closest friends, she can barely remember anything about the kids she went to school with. The only name she remembers is Sam Uley, and that is probably just due to all the drama from the night before. "And your girlfriend wasn't just a tourist who showed up once, she kept coming back."

Jacob gets a wistful, happy smile on his face thinking about Bella's summer visits to Forks during their childhood. His wolf is equally distracted thinking of her. Jasmine is simultaneously depressed to see his immediate reaction, and relieved that he didn't probe further. The fact is that she remembers Bella Swan vividly from the rare instances she caught a glimpse of the girl. Jacob had never looked happier than when the older girl was by his side.

Jasmine, realizing that this is the first time Jacob hasn't looked annoyed with her since she returned, pursues the line of questioning. "Is she visiting her dad for the holidays?"

"Huh?" He breaks out of his Bella reverie. "No. She moved back a couple years ago."

"That must have made you happy," she answers. He doesn't notice the way her expression falls.

Jacob's wolf settles inside him. He flashes a wide grin at her. "You have no idea."

Jasmine doesn't actually want to hear about the other girl, but he seems so pleased now. And she really does want to catch up with her old friend. Her tall, gorgeous, muscular friend. She smiles weakly. "I'm kind of hungry, how about you? Looks like you finished your food. Come make another plate with me and tell me about her."

Jacob falls into step behind her, easily prattling on about the love of his life. Jasmine smiles and nods in the right places. She focuses on the sound of his voice and the expression on his face rather than the content of his conversation, a tactic that allows her to avoid getting too depressed. Jacob sticks to safe topics like fixing up their motorcycles in his garage and their Valentine's Day "date" with Mike Newton. His eyes light up as he talks, and she watches the warmth in his face. She recalls the same happy, boyish expression from their childhood. She marvels at how much he has changed, how much he has grown up, subtly eyeing the musculature under his shirt and the pleasing angles of his face. But all the same, she still sees the bright spirit of the youth she remembers shining in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Bella speaks with her father and Billy in an empty office. Unsurprisingly, both of them are enthusiastic about her intention to support the pack with Edward's money. Billy feels a weight lifting off his shoulders as they speak. He is immensely proud of his son, of all the wolves, but the parent in him has worried since the day Sam Uley disappeared, only to return two weeks later aged by several years. As much as he loves having Jacob near, he wants his son to have every option available to him, every door open. The moment his son was struck with fever, he felt the impact of all those doors slamming shut in the depths of his heart. With Bella's offer, he can feel a few of those doors opening back up again. His son the Alpha may not be able to leave the reservation anytime soon, but now he could afford to pay for an expensive online degree, start a business, or simply devote himself full time to his pack duties without the worry of never bringing home a paycheck.

Charlie, on the other hand, thinks of it as poetic justice. He always knew Edward Cullen was simply wrong. His daughter and the the boys of La Push were forced to bear the brunt of his destruction. It is only fair that Cullen's estate should help rebuild their lives.

"How much were you thinking, Bells?" Charlie asks.

She shrugs and looks at the ground. "All of it?"

Billy coughs in surprise. "That's totally unnecessary, dear. There's no reason."

"Well, I don't want to just support the current pack. I think a big chunk of it should go to future packs."

Charlie suggests, "Putting some of it aside to invest should take care of that. Let it sit and grow and pay out for future generations. That still doesn't require the entire estate. Keep some of it for school, to buy your own house with later, a rainy day. You'll probably want to pass some on to your own kids too, Bells."

Bella blushes and looks away. Billy grins at her and teases, "She knows the money for the next generation of wolves includes her kids, Charlie."

Charlie finds himself frowning and smiling all at once. "Dear lord, just not anytime soon. Please. I don't want to be a granddad yet, do you, Bill?"

Bella stands up and excuses herself in embarrassment, "I'm going to go find Jake now. Let him know what you both thought." She scurries away from the sound of their laughter. She hurries down the hallway and rounds the corner into the main room, where she stops in her tracks.

Jacob is seated in a chair two feet away from Jasmine, smiling and laughing. Bella flashes back to the picture of the two toddlers in the sandbox, Jasmine gazing at Jacob with rapture in her eyes. She sees the exact same expression on the beautiful girl's face. She examines Jasmine. She is simply gorgeous. She is as stunning as Leah, not as tall but more voluptuous. Jasmine leans toward Jacob. Her body appears drawn towards his like a magnet, and she smiles and reaches out to touch his knee with her hand. Bella discovers that her feet are glued to the tile floor. Her heart stutters in her chest.

Jacob freezes at the touch, suddenly losing track of his monologue about Bella's cooking. God. It's happening again. Painful heat shoots through his cock as his wolf growls with anger. His heart skips along with Bella's. He desperately fights the urge to throw Jasmine across the room, and in resisting the instinct, all he can do is hold still. He vibrates with tension, locked in a battle with himself. He chants a mantra in his mind, _Don't phase don't phase don't phase_, and manages not to move at all. If he allows his muscles to unlock so he can scoot away from her, he is going to toss her across a room full of people.

After an indeterminate amount of time, perhaps seconds or minutes long, Seth appears by his cousin's side. He had arrived while they weren't paying attention and had been carefully monitoring the pair. Seth touches her shoulder with an artificially happy greeting, and she releases Jacob. He immediately feels Bella's eyes on him. She looks stricken. In a rush to get to her, he stands without thinking, knocking his plate of food to the ground.

It is as good an excuse as any to extricate himself from his conversation with Jasmine. He hurriedly cleans the floor. When he turns around to find Bella, she is gone. He rushes after her, immediately finding her in a lounge. She sits on a worn leather couch twisting the hem of her sweatshirt in her hand, and she doesn't meet his eyes. So he kneels at her feet and takes her hands in his. His penis hardens fully at the contact, aching uncomfortably in its downward angle against his thigh. But as much as his wolf growls at him to strip her naked, he knows this is neither the time nor the place.

So he settles for burying his face in her lap and wrapping his arms around her waist. She instinctively wraps herself around him and mentally chides herself for her jealousy. Jacob hasn't done anything wrong and she knows it. On the contrary, he obviously needs her comfort.

He mutters, "Sorry I'm being an ass about the money."

"'Sokay," she shushes him.

Eventually she straightens and starts to stroke her hands up and down his arms until he begins to relax with a shaky sigh. Bella tightens her grip on his forearms. "It's okay, Jake. I'm here with you."

He pulls her more tightly against him. "I know, and having you here makes everything so much better. But what am I going to do once school starts? I always need you, Bells, I always want you, but when she's around, the urge is just overwhelming."

Bella feels tension building up in her gut. Jacob has reassured her that he only wants her, that he loves only her, but she can't help but worry that what he really feels toward the voluptuous girl is not irrational anger but a deep seated attraction. After all, why else would he get aroused when Jasmine touches him? "What do you think might happen?" she asks anxiously.

He shakes his head in frustration. "I don't know. I'm afraid I'll phase in front of her or something. Or worse yet, phase so close that I hurt her like Sam hurt Emily."

She can't quite hear him, muffled as he is against her legs. So she draws him to sit next to her on the couch and turns her body so that she faces him, but she can't quite look in his eyes. Instead, she takes a deep breath and holds his hands in hers, staring at their joined hands. "You seemed to be getting along pretty well at first. Not exactly like she was at risk."

He smiles, but she doesn't look up to see it. "She found my one weakness and exploited it. She got me started talking about my favorite thing."

Irrationally, she thinks, _Green Eyes? Big breasts? _But what comes out of her mouth thankfully isn't so petty, "Cars?"

He grins wider and tips her chin up so she has no choice but to look at him. "Silly girl, no. You. She asked me about you, so I started talking about you, and then I couldn't shut up."

"Oh," she says sheepishly.

"It was the first time I've been around her that I felt remotely normal. Until she touched my knee, anyway."

And Bella's jealousy rises again. She drops her eyes to the arousal still evident in his lap. "Is your body telling you something?"

"Yeah, definitely," he answers immediately. "There's something going on, and I just wish I knew what it was."

"No, Jake. You're not paying attention. I've seen the way she looks at you, and she's only been back for a few days. You have such a strong reaction to her, too." He searches her face, still confused about what she is asking. She frowns and mumbles, "It's normal to be attracted to girls other than your girlfriend." Bella can't help mentally comparing herself to Jasmine, and in her own mind at least, she falls far short.

"Oh, honey," he sighs. He moves one hand to gently nudge her chin up again with his curved index finger.

Before he can say anything else, though, she continues, "I know you've said you only see me, Jake. And I know you love me. But she's beautiful, and I don't expect you not to see that."

He shakes his head and smiles at her, but she won't meet his eyes to see it. "There's only you, Bells. There has only ever been you."

She nods, still not looking at him. "I know you love me, Jake. But you're a guy, a teenage guy, and she's sexy and curvy and pretty and kind of throwing herself at you, and your body wants her," she whispers.

He chuckles, "I know she's attractive." Bella's stomach drops immediately. "But I swear I don't want her that way. Leah is every bit as pretty as she is, and I don't want her either. I want you." Bella isn't convinced, and her expression shows it. He grins at her and tips her chin up further, forcing her to look him in the eye. "I want you, Bells. Always have. She's pretty, but you're beautiful, don't you get that?"

Bella frowns and shakes her head. "You're sweet, but I've got eyes and a mirror."

Jacob sees that he isn't getting anywhere with Bella. So he leans over to thread his hands through her hair, cupping the back of her skull gently, and hovers his lips just over the spot behind her ear that drives her crazy. "You're beautiful." He drops his voice to a husky whisper. His breath stirs the hairs on her neck and causes rippling tingles down her spine. "I can just fall into your big brown eyes. They're warm and rich, just like this thick, silky hair." He grips a fistful tightly. "Your little nose is just adorable, and I love doing this to it." He shifts to give her a sweet Eskimo kiss before returning his lips behind her ear. "Your skin is so soft, so smooth." He runs his lips down her neck to illustrate. "And it's so sensitive to my touch. I love it." He moves as if to kiss her on the lips, but hovers there instead. "And your mouth, baby," he actually groans when he says this. "Your pink lips are so lickable, and you've got this natural pout that drives me crazy." He nips at her full bottom lip with his teeth, and she gasps. "Your neck is perfect for this." He trails kisses down her jaw and along the length of her neck. He spies the still open door and returns his lips to her ear. "And if we were really alone, I'd pull off all your clothing so I could show you just what I love about your body. But we're not, so I guess I just have to tell you. Your hands are delicate, and they fit exactly in mine. Your breasts fit perfectly in my mouth, and they're just so, so pretty," he groans, and and she moans softly in response to his words. "Your nipples are exactly the right size, not too big, not too small, and they taste so damn good. You have this itty bitty little waist, and your hips are just right for grabbing onto when I'm in you. And your legs. Man, your legs. Slender and long and they just go all the way up. Your ass is round and tight and high and oh, god, Bells. You can't imagine what it looks like when I'm fucking you from behind." He growls and yanks her onto his lap, grinding his erection into her. "There are these little dimples low in your back that I just want to lick. My thumbs fit perfectly in them when I take you. Your back has that flawless skin and the dip of your spine is feminine and sexy. And that sweet, sweet pussy. Baby, so soft, so pink, and it grabs onto me like wet, hot velvet. You're incredibly, insanely tight. I can't believe you can take my whole cock into that tiny, taut little body, but you do, and ohhh, it's so fucking good."

Between his mysterious arousal from Jasmine's touch and his lustful train of thought about Bella, Jacob is ready to shut the door and demonstrate exactly what he means. He eyes the small window in the door and makes a split second decision when he smells the effect his words had on her body. He lifts her off him and shuts the door gently, clicking the lock and flipping the light switch off. Her eyes widen in surprise as they adjust to the dim light filtering in the window through the curtains. "If anyone walks by," she begins.

He nods as he stalks toward her. "That's why it's perfect in here, baby. No one will ever suspect I'm fucking you in a room with a window to the hallway." It is idiotic logic, but he couldn't care less. He tugs her to her feet and backs her into the corner to the right of the door with a hand in the center of her chest. His body heat soothes her nerves and sets her on edge all at once. "I thought I told you to wear more skirts," he growls as he flicks open the fly of her jeans.

She drags through her lust addled brain to find her wits. She can't believe she is doing this. Again. But Jacob's hunger is her hunger, and it is overwhelming. "I thought you liked a challenge?" she says as she trails her fingers over the burning skin under his shirt.

He bats her hand away. "You're the one whose body we're examining here, not mine." He works her pants and underwear off, then starts to undo the buttons of her shirt.

She looks down at his hands. "I don't think you technically have to take that off to get where you're going, Jake."

"I need to see your skin, Bella," he growls as he parts the last button from its hole. "I need to see all of you." He slides the shirt down her arms and drinks in the sight of her.

Hesitantly, she glances at the door a few feet away. She bites her lip and reaches around her back to undo her bra. She drops it on the pile of her clothes. When she turns back toward him, his eyes are black with lust.

"I only see you, Bells," he whispers harshly. He rakes his eyes up and down her fully exposed form as she reaches out to tug up the hem of his shirt. She wants to see his body almost as much as he needs to see hers. He obligingly whips it off. Then she works to open his fly and lower his pants down far enough that his cock springs free. She moves to take his hard heat in her hand, but he stops her with two fingers. Then he licks his palm and grasps himself with it, fisting himself before her, smoothing weeping precum across his broad head of his dick and pumping himself a few times. She watches, enraptured. He repeats the action until his enormous length shines with moisture.

"Are you ready for me, baby?" He slides two fingers of his other hand between her thighs and finds her soaked. He smirks and dips his fingers inside, shallowly, teasing her and making her lean back against the wall for support. She gasps and drops her head back. His smirk deepens as he thrusts his fingers deep inside, and she moans. "Shh." He takes his hand away from her and places a finger on her lips as she whimpers in protest. "You don't want to get caught, do you?" he whispers before she snakes her tongue out to lick her fluids off his finger. He can barely contain his own moan, and her seductive action makes him desperate. He pumps his penis more firmly.

As soon as she releases his hand, he spins her around and and whispers, "Bend over. I can't wait any longer. I have to be inside you now."

She obliges, placing her hands over the molding at the top of the wall's wainscoting and pushing her buttocks out toward him. He widens his stance and bends his knees to lower his hips in line with her dripping pussy. He parts her folds and immediately slides in, hissing with pleasure. She spasms and pulses around him. "Shit. Bells. Shit," he whispers harshly. Slowly, slowly he withdraws, then slams back in. She can't hold back a quiet whimper. "So, so tight, baby." His voice is strangled. "I can't believe you're always this tight. Am I hurting you?"

Biting her lip, she nods, but when she manages to speak she answers, "It's a good burn, Jake." He twitches inside her, and she gasps in response. "You're just so big. I love the way you feel." He struggles to maintain some semblance of control while she speaks, and he peeks at the door while he still has the wherewithal to do so. A tiny, dim sliver of the hallway is visible through the tiny window from this angle. If he isn't careful, they might be spotted. "Please keep moving, please?"

He is unable to resist her request, and he starts pounding into her in earnest. He can barely contain the growls vibrating deep in his throat. His wolf howls with pleasure at the claiming of its mate. He stares down at her slender, willing body and drinks in the sight. He wasn't lying to her earlier, wasn't exaggerating to make her feel better. He grips her feminine hips tightly and drinks in the sight of his engorged length plundering her willing form. She is so enticing. Her slim waist tapering into the curve of her hip, her round ass bouncing with each thrust, the creamy expanse of skin all beckon to him. He presses his thumbs into the dimples in her lower back and sinks his fingers into her soft flesh. "So... so... beautiful..." he chokes out in between deep thrusts.

Bella is overwhelmed by him. Each slam of his cock into her cervix sends shockwaves ricocheting through both their bodies, amplifying and echoing each other's pleasure. She is barely able to stay upright, so she grasps at the wall's molding for purchase. She feels every inch of his hard cock inside her. Her position renders her entire body tense, the muscles of her vaginal walls included, and she involuntarily clamps down around him. She relishes his strangled gasps in response. At a particularly deep thrust she whimpers from the sharp pleasure and pain, and he hisses, "Shhhh," but doesn't stop pounding. She bites her lip to keep from crying out loud. She loses herself in pure sensation. Jacob's heat bleeds from his form into hers. His harsh breathing echoes off the bare walls.

He is unable to stay as silent as she, but her sensuous gasps fill his ears and peak his arousal as much as it would if she were begging him to fuck her, since he knows how difficult it is for her not to cry out. He can't see it from his position, but she has released her bottom lip from her teeth and her mouth is open wide in a silent scream.

He can't get enough of her. His need for her is bone deep. His thirst for her will never be sated. Because there is not just passion here, but deep, abiding love. It isn't just his body. She is rooted into his soul. His heart yearns for hers as much as his body needs to be inside hers. The wolf 's ardor for her is as strong as the man's, the need to merge with her and to be one.

A few minutes later, Jacob keeps his grip on her hip with his left hand while he slides his right palm up to the center of her back, pushing her into a low arch. He knows exactly what the position will do her. He knows her body even better than he knows his own. The head of his cock pushes into the spot low in the front of her cunt that makes her wild. Involuntarily, he curses a broken string of words almost inaudibly, "Goddamn... sweet... pussy... Mmmm... Fuck... pretty... god... Unhhh..."

At his words and the shift in position, Bella starts to clench around him in a prolonged orgasm. She shakes and spasms and struggles desperately not to lose all motor control and fall. Her orgasm builds and builds in intensity, and Jacob is just about to follow her into bliss when he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. He freezes as a shadow passes in front of the window. Bella simultaneously gasps and clamps her hand over her own mouth in surprise when the door handle jiggles. What is probably only three or four seconds feels like an eternity until the shadow moves away from the door. Through the tiny slit of window that Jacob can see through, he spies the sway of Jasmine's hair. His cock twitches inside Bella.

Without moving his hips, Jacob reaches around to roll her nipple with one hand and finger her clit with the other. Her arousal temporarily waned from the near interruption, but he builds her back up in moments. He leans over to whisper in her ear, "Don't go anywhere, baby, because we're not done until you come one more time, and I empty myself into your tight, hot pussy."

Bella can't help but moan softly at his words and his touch. So when she reaches back out to steady herself against the wall, he chuckles, "Moan a little louder and Jasmine will figure out exactly what I'm doing to you in here." He stays still inside her, pinching and rolling her nipple and working her clit roughly as he loses himself in the sensation of her body enveloping him. The feelings flooding him are almost as good as it feels when he slams into her, especially since he can feel her bliss reflected in his own body. So he finds himself smiling with a glazed, ecstatic expression as he pleasures her, and in so doing, pleasures himself.

He keeps her right on the edge of orgasm, hanging right on the cusp of the cliff, until she finally whimpers, "Please, Jacob. I can't take it any more."

And he happily pulls his hips backward, eyes locked on the white-knuckled grip she has on the molding, his wet length dragging out of her pussy until the head is just barely inside, and he pistons back in. He fucks her hard and fast as she soars through her climax, whimpering and gasping in the lowest tones she can manage. He pounds into her over and over, and when he senses that she is about to collapse to the floor, he holds her hips firmly against him and lets himself come, shooting rope after rope of hot semen inside her.

He slips out gently, and she turns to slump against the wall. He leans over her, right arm braced against the wall near her head, and he draws his left hand through her hair to cup the back of her head. He murmurs, "You're perfect. I love you," and kisses her deeply.

And for a moment, she believes him entirely. She isn't a perfect person, but she is perfect for him, and he for her. With him, the room, the hall, the people outside, everything and everyone has dropped away except for him.

Just then, a voice sounds from the hallway in a harsh whisper, just loud enough that even Bella can hear. "You know, just because someone tells you to get a room, doesn't mean you can take just any room available!"

Jacob snorts with laughter as Bella scrambles to put on her clothes. Bella answers, "Shut up. Someone's going to hear you!"

From the hallway, the voice laughs back. "Hey, if you're going to have sex in a building full of people with supernatural hearing, you have no business telling me to shut up about it!"

"Did Charlie or my dad notice anything?" Jacob asks as he fastens his pants and puts on his shirt.

Bella is dressed save her shirt, so Jacob opens the door to reveal a snickering Leah. Bella protests, "Hey!" and wraps her arms over her chest.

Jacob turns back to her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Hey, she's already seen it all. You told me the dirty story."

Leah smirks at as Bella finishes dressing in the corner. "You liked that, huh?"

"I owe you a thank you, I think," Jacob smiles.

"You owe me big time, I think. Your fathers are a little too drunk to notice that you've been missing just long enough to defile each other. But they'll probably notice when you come out of here with your clothes on inside out," she walks around Jacob and flicks her finger at the tag sticking off the back of his shirt.

"Oh, shit. Thanks." He quickly flips off his shirt and fixes it.

"Too bad you can't shower before you go back out there. You both smell like a brothel," Leah wrinkles her nose at them. A blush rises on Bella's cheeks, and she squirms around unconsciously. Leah narrows her eyes at Bella. "What's wrong with you? Too sore to walk?"

Bella refuses to answer, but she does shove Jacob out of the room. "We can't come out at the same time. My dad will figure out what's up. I'm gonna hang in here with Leah for a bit."

Jacob agrees and goes to find his friends and more food. Leah turns back to Bella. "Spill. Something's up."

Bella mutters under her breath, "I ruined my underwear."

Leah guffaws, clutching at her stomach. "Serves you right. Tell Jake to keep it in his pants next time."

Bella frowns slightly. "No, I don't like that solution."

"Well, keep this up and your dad is going to walk in on you one of these days. I hope I'm around to see him shoot Jake in the ass. And if you subject the pack to this one more time, you'd better pop us some popcorn." Leah drops into an armchair in the corner of the room.

"Hey," Bella says, uncomfortably changing the subject. "Where's Brad? Oh my god, what did you tell him? What did you decide?"

Leah's expression falls. "Oh, that. He went home."

"You okay?" Bella asks, sitting on the couch and turning toward Leah.

"Oh yeah, I don't think he really expected me to go with him."

"What happened?"

Leah leans back into the chair and twirls her hair nervously around her finger. She tells Bella what happened.

X-x-x-x-X

They had woken well after Seth left for patrol. Sue had a shift at the hospital, so they had the house to themselves. Sue had made up the couch in the study for Brad to sleep in, but he snuck into her room as soon as he heard her mother leave. Brad had woken her with kisses peppering the back of her neck. They had avoided speaking altogether as he made love to her tenderly, and they climbed into the shower together still without having said anything other than a quiet, "Good morning."

They cooked brunch, both of them still careful to avoid the subject of his request for her to join him. But she knew what was on his mind from the tight grip of his hands on her hips or the sensation of his gaze upon her back as she stood at the stove.

The longer the morning wore on, the farther Brad's hopes fell. She set a plate of bacon and eggs in front of him and sat down to eat with him. And looking into his eyes, she had realized something important. She wanted to leave. She wanted to move. She wanted to start a new life. But aside from the fact that she didn't know how to stop phasing yet, aside from the fact that Jacob and her pack still need her, and aside from the fact that Brad doesn't really know the real her and probably wouldn't be asking her to come with him if he did, she realized that she isn't ready for what he wants. But she could finally see herself getting there. If not now, then someday soon.

She finally set her fork down when he asked, "Have you thought more about coming with me?"

She nodded at him gently and reached for his hand across the table. "I want to, but I can't. Not now. The timing, the circumstances are just wrong," she shook her head.

Brad slumped a bit and let out a breath of disappointment. But then he grinned at her. "It was worth a shot, huh? I didn't expect you to say yes. But a guy can hope." He shrugged and looked at his feet. "If it's okay with you, I'm going to go to the restroom and massage my bruised ego for a minute."

She lifted his hand to kiss the back of it and joked, "If you need a hand massaging anything else, you just let me know."

He laughed and stepped away. Their time together ended not long after. Neither of them brought up the subject of trying to maintain a long distance relationship. Brad wasn't about to ask for more when he had just been let down, and Leah wasn't up for it anyway. They had parted with a gentle kiss, and he had driven away.

X-x-x-x-X

"I'm sorry," Bella says quietly.

Leah just shrugs. "It's okay. I hate to say it, but he was sort of my rebound guy. Not the love of my life."

"You ready to meet the love of your life now?" Bella asks, smiling.

Leah snorts. "Yeah, right. One bitchy, infertile werewolf ready for love. Line up, boys."

"Or one model-hot, nearly indestructible single gal with the ability to look like a twenty year old when she's sixty," Bella responds.

"Great. So I can still bag a hot twenty year old when I'm old enough to be his grandma? Fabulous," she laughs. "Nah, there's no way I'm still phasing that long."

Bella sobers. "Sam know you're staying?" She has caught the looks that Sam has thrown Leah's way ever since he learned she was seeing other people. Frankly, everyone had caught those looks. It had been a major source of gossip across the reservation, within the pack and without it.

"Yep. He's eavesdropping as we speak. Again," Leah sighs. At that, Sam shuffles in from the hallway with a guilty expression on his face.

"Sorry," he mumbles.

Leah sighs and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, so, status quo then?"

"Leah," he pleads, but the sentence dies as it reaches his lips.

Bella stands to leave. "I'm gonna go find Jake."

Once they are alone, he kneels at her feet. Appalled, she scoots to the back of her armchair but isn't able to get nearly as far away as she'd like. "What are you doing?" she asks.

"Thank you. Thank you for staying."

She shakes her head angrily. "No, don't thank me. And don't get used to it. I'm not going to be here forever."

"But we need you here," he protests.

"Right. Until June when Jared and Paul graduate. I'm getting out of here this summer if everything stays calm."

"But you belong here," he states firmly.

"Doing what? Running around the woods all damn day long? There's more to life than this, and I intend to find it."

"I need you here, Lee," he whispers.

"What for?" she hisses. "So I can bake muffins with your wife? So I can babysit your kids? What the hell for?"

Sam can't force out the words he wants to say. Can't tell her what she meant to him, what she still means to him. He grips the arms of her chair tightly and takes deep breaths, words stuck in his throat.

She huffs and crosses her arms. "That's what I thought. You don't actually have anything to say to me. Why won't you just let me go?"

He can't manage to explain anything else, can't figure out how to communicate that he can't let her go because he never stopped loving her, can't verbalize that he finally understands that what he feels for her is more genuine than everything he feels for her cousin. He forgets all of this, of course, the moment Emily comes into view. But she isn't here yet, so the cloud in his brain has cleared momentarily. And he remembers everything. Leah's flirtatious smile, her rich laugh, the soft warmth of her skin, the crinkle in her forehead when she frowned at him, the way she narrowed her eyes when she argued with him, the passion of her kiss when they made up. With Emily, there is no fighting, so there is no making up. They skipped right past flirting and landed directly into a relationship. He never disagrees with her about anything, he just gives in, so the arguing is nonexistent.

Leah represents everything he meant to have. Every goal he planned to achieve. College, travel, career. Unbridled hope and youthful joy. Unadulterated passion.

He struggles to tell her, to make her understand. But he can't. He has no idea how. Even if she would phase with him, which she refuses to do, in wolf form the man in him is suppressed, and his wolf has chosen Emily. Wants only Emily. So when they join in the pack mind, he can think consciously of little other than Emily.

But he has to try. Besides, he has seen enough through his brothers' minds that she knows anyhow. She has always known him better than he knew himself, and now is no different. Just because he can't speak the words doesn't mean she doesn't know. She simply refuses to read between the lines any longer in an attempt to shield herself. "You know," is all he can manage. "You know me."

She drops her head down, desperately trying not to cry. "I used to know you."

He is about to correct her when they both hear the main door open and close. Emily's voice wafts in from the hall as she greets someone else and asks after Sam, then drops her voice and asks about Paul and Elle with a dark note in her voice. His heart skips a beat and his words die in his throat. His universe refocuses on the woman outside. He stands to go to her, forgetting about his first love glaring at him with tears in her eyes.

Leah sees everything. Everything written on his face, at the forefront of his mind, and everything buried in his subconscious. The pieces of him that slip away every time Emily comes near. Leah's heart breaks one more time. She marvels that she is able to able to find any shards of her heart left to break.

"Wait," she stops him. "Do something for me. Just this once, and I'll never ask you for anything else."

He looks down at her, torn between staying to listen and rushing out to his imprint.

She smiles bitterly. "Don't worry. It won't take long." She reaches into her pocket. "You wouldn't take this back before. I didn't understand why at the time. I'm asking again." She pulls her engagement ring out, thrusting it toward him. "Here. I don't want it."

"It's yours," he answers, horrified. Faintly he hears Rachel Black make a joke to Paul and Elle, and for the first and only time he becomes truly furious with Emily. If only she had let him free. But as soon as the flash of anger rises, his imprint extinguishes it. She had been telling him to go back to Leah at first, of course, and was doing so when she yelled at him about being like his deadbeat father, triggering his anger and the phasing that tore her skin to shreds. By the time she woke in the hospital, she had lost her will to resist, and Leah had been left permanently behind. Or so he thought.

"I don't want it," Leah repeats, her voice hard. "It only hurts me to have it. I don't know what to do with it. So please, take it back."

He shakes his head incredulously. "That's... It's... That's us, Lee-Lee. Don't do this."

"What do you expect me to do, wear it? Give it to the daughter I'll never have? Please, Sam. Take it back and let me go."

He blinks at her and shakes his head. "I can't," he whispers.

She stands and faces him. "Fine. But I'm not taking it home again," her voice is abnormally quiet. She places the ring on the armrest and brushes past him, leaving Sam staring at the ring and Emily frozen in an aborted half-wave at her as she storms out the exit.

X-x-x-x-X


	15. Chapter 14

X-x-x-x-X  
January  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob attends the first day back to school with trepidation the likes of which he has never felt before. His first day of kindergarten was less intimidating. He has managed to avoid Jasmine altogether since the New Year's party at the community center, but there is no way to continue doing so. And indeed, when he enters his homeroom, she is seated directly behind his desk. She waves at him with a bright grin, and he gives her a tight lipped smile back. He panics internally until Embry spots his distress and goes to speak with their teacher, pointing out that Jasmine won't be able to see past Jacob's substantial height. He offers to trade seats with her. The teacher agrees without hesitation, and Jacob releases a sigh of relief.

Sadly, this only helps for the first fifteen minutes of the day. He lucks out in Quileute Language 3, as she studied Spanish throughout school. Pre-calculus is next. Five minutes after he sits down, she appears in the doorway. Happily, the only vacant seat is across the room in front of Quil, although with only a dozen students in the class, she really isn't all that far away. He sees her staring at him intermittently though the period and misses his long hair. He would love to block her gaze by letting it flop over the side of his face. He spends altogether too much time turned toward the window, but he still feels her eyes boring into the back of his head like a laser. He is so distracted that he misses the teacher ask him to come to the board twice in a row. It isn't the first time it has happened, but this time isn't due to a sleepless night on patrol.

He gets a break in Physics. Jasmine stops him on his way rushing out of math to ask him where to find Speech. He is inordinately pleased not to know, and Quil leads her down the hall. He has never been so pleased to learn about thermodynamics.

He isn't so lucky in Pacific Tribal History. She sits right next to him, and there is no way to get away. Instead of retaining any of the lecture about the whaling practices of the previous century, he spends the first ten minutes of class rearranging the letters in Bella's name in an attempt to distract himself from his aggressive attitude toward Jasmine. He actually succeeds for a little while, even snorting out loud after coming up with the anagram "lesbian wear salami". Unfortunately, Jasmine notes his shift in mood and takes the opportunity to ask him for a pen. Irritated, he wonders how she managed to get through the first three hours of the day without anything to write with before realizing he saw her with her own pack of pens and pencils in math. But calling her out is just rude, so he settles for not looking at her as he hands one over. As he does so, her fingers brush against his. He yanks his hand away to keep himself from breaking her hand, and the pen clatters to the floor. He has to stab himself in the thigh with an unravelled paperclip to keep his unwanted erection at bay and to redirect his anger, and his wolf starts to chant for Bella in his mind. To make matters worse, Bella texts him ten minutes later asking if something is wrong because her leg has a sharp pain. He pulls the metal out of his skin in horror. He manages to sit through the remainder of the period without feeling further arousal, but his mysterious anger at Jasmine only grows. He tries not to look at her, but he sees her watching him curiously in his peripheral vision.

He escapes her during lunch. She walks in with Julie, who is currently "on again" rather than "off again" in her tenuous relationship with Embry, so the pair of girls heads for their table. As soon as he sees her coming, he escapes to eat his food in his empty homeroom class, where he also pulls his phone out to call Bella.

"You okay, Jake?" she asks gently.

"Yeah. I'm so sorry about your leg. I wasn't thinking."

"What happened?"

"I was stabbing myself in the leg to distract myself. She was sitting right next to me. It was a little rough."

He hears her open and close a door. "Sorry I can't be there to help," she answers sadly.

"Don't apologize, honey. I can't expect you to be by my side at all times."

"Did you feel angry around her?" Bella asks.

"Yeah," he answers. "So far we have homeroom, math, and history together. It wasn't too bad in homeroom or math since she was on the other side of the room. But she touched me when she asked for a pen in history, and that's when it got uncomfortable."

Bella pauses and reads between the lines, chewing her lip with worry. "You got turned on again," she says quietly, depression tinting her voice and her chest tightening with fear.

Jacob gapes for a few seconds, not knowing what to say. He doesn't want to hurt Bella, but he doesn't want to lie either. So he goes with the truth. "My wolf started calling for you, honey. I wanted to phase and run right to Port Angeles and to you. Still do."

Bella stops breathing for a second. Her voice is barely a whisper. "Where are you, Jake?"

"An empty classroom, why?"

She pauses, trying to work up the nerve to make her offer. She knows she should trust Jacob, but his involuntary reaction to the beautiful girl makes her incredibly nervous. "Do you need a release?" Her whisper is breathy from anxiety and unintentionally seductive.

Jacob's body immediately reacts, but his private room is really not so private. "Are you asking me what I think you're asking?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Where are you?"

"Study cubby in the library. One of those tiny rooms with just space for a single desk." She pauses. "I'm all alone."

"Oh god. You're not helping at all, Bells," he laughs uncomfortably. "I had that part under control as soon as I realized that what I did hurt your skin along with mine. The bigger problem was not turning around and, like, grabbing and breaking her wrist or something. Now I'm less pissed at her, but I'm totally horny again."

"So, um, do you want to, uh..." Bella can't finish her sentence.

Jacob grins into the phone. "Yes, but not now. I have ten minutes until my next class, and this room has a big window in the door. When are you getting home this afternoon?"

"Around four," she answers. "Charlie won't be home until six."

"Mmm. Perfect. Can you put on that black thing that you got with Leah?"

"Sure," she answers. "Can you put on, uh, absolutely nothing at all?"

"Sure, sure," he laughs. "Okay, but right now you have to help me settle down. Tell me something that turns you off. I can't walk around school like this."

She bites her lip and thinks for a second. "Oh, I got it. Do you still have your drink left?"

"Not much, why?"

"Is there some ice at the bottom?"

He looks down into the styrofoam cup. "Uh, yeah. A bunch."

"Okay, dump the ice in a bag. Do you have a ziplock? Or did you eat a bag of chips or anything?"

"What on earth am I doing here, Bells? Okay, it's done."

"Great. Now shove it down your pants."

"What?" he laughs.

"Do you still have an erection?"

"Yeah, but seriously?"

"It's either that, or find a utility closet and have phone sex with me. Or get one of your brothers to punch you really hard in the groin."

He barks out a laugh. "Okay, in that case, I choose phone sex."

"Just use the ice, Jake!"

It works, but of course before he pulls the bag out of his pants, a teacher walks in the room. He flushes bright red, but thankfully, the teacher is male. So when he explains that he got hit in the groin with an errant ball flying out of the gym, the teacher gives him a sympathetic look, and he limps off in an exaggerated fashion.

Somehow, Bella's ridiculous strategy carries him through Chemistry even though Jasmine is in the class. She is partnered with Julie and sits at a lab table three rows in front of him. He finds it easier to ignore her than he does when he can feel her watching him, so their positions in the room help him. And he keeps his bag of ice (now mostly water) just in case. She doesn't appear in his computer science class, and although she has gym at the same time he does during last period, their activities are divided up by gender, so she is easy to avoid.

He bolts at the first opportunity, running away from an overheard conversation between Julie and Jasmine in which he hears her asking Julie if Jacob is always this unfriendly. She had clearly been hoping that he would be more outgoing if his girlfriend wasn't hanging off his arm. He doesn't wait around long enough to hear the rest of the discussion, since he is certain it would just make him angry.

He is freshly showered and awaiting Bella in her bed when she returns from Port Angeles. As he rolls her underneath him, she giggles and says, "You know, maybe I should thank Jasmine for her effect on you. After all, I seem to be the beneficiary."

He can't think of an adequate response, so he just crushes his lips to hers and slides his fingers up her thigh.

Two hours later, he barely escapes out the window with his clothes in his fist when Charlie gets home from work.

The next day Paul, Jared, Embry and Quil corner Jacob by his locker. Paul wields a black sharpie. They manage to pin him down while he struggles ineffectually and laughs. Paul writes "Property of Bella Swan" on his arm, saying, "It's for your own good. Stop squirming, or I'll write this on your forehead." And it works. Although Jasmine makes a few brief attempts to smile and greet him, she notices the scrawl on his arm and makes no attempt to touch him. When she tries to return his pen from the day before, he simply tells her to keep it. He finds that as long as he stays away from her touch, he can keep himself under control. His wolf stays on high alert whenever she is near, but so long as he avoids her, he is able to suppress the urge to attack her. He eats his lunch in another empty classroom talking with Bella on the phone and doing homework. She promises to meet him at his house after classes. Between avoiding Jasmine's touch and knowing that he will see Bella in a few short hours, he is relieved not to experience any unwanted arousal. By the end of the day his anxiety turns into an optimistic mood, and he heads home with a spring in his step.

X-x-x-x-X

While Jacob navigates his schooldays, Sam continues handling the daytime patrols. He begins to spend more of his free time practicing his spirit warrior skills. Unlike Collin and Jacob, he is unable to send his spirit past the bounds of the reservation. He seems bound to his home somehow. But he discovers that his skill in talking to animals rivals Jacob's.

_Fascinated, he takes to floating amongst the trees for hours on end listening to the songs of the birds. They have the most interesting stories to tell, tales from their travels far and wide. The fishes in the frigid river have the strangest language, but in the winter water they are only half conscious. He looks forward to the return of the salmon, far flung travelers who migrate through both the oceans and freshwater rivers of his home. He senses many hibernating animals dreaming of warmer weather and plentiful food. He listens to placid deer quietly searching for the remnants of last season's foliage. He discovers that although it is easy for him to understand the language of the beasts, they understand few of his words until he speaks to them in his native tongue. _

So he turns to Old Quil to help him relearn the Quileute language, words spoken throughout his childhood but that he has not maintained. Between patrols, work, spirit walking, and his studies, he finds himself returning home later and later.

_During one spirit walk a few days after the New Year's holiday he finds himself floating above the Clearwater house. He has not gone there since Seth spotted him outside. Leah has not spoken to him since she returned his ring. Unable to convince her to take it back, he slipped the jewelry into his wallet. He has carried it with him ever since. He feels it in his back pocket, heavy far beyond the few grams it actually weighs. Emily, thankfully, has not discovered it. It would devastate her if she knew it was there. He cannot figure out what to do with it. As Leah said, its constant presence only causes pain. _

_In his spirit form, he finds himself drawn to her. He knows he should leave her alone, but short of leaving Emily and begging her to take him back, there is little she wants to hear from him. And at this point, he isn't certain she even wants that. But he finds that he is unable to stay away. Somehow, without a conscious decision to do so, he discovers that he is hovering outside her bedroom window. It is late, and she is asleep. Emily herself does not know he is gone. He waited until she fell asleep before crawling out of their bed and sneaking into the woods. His body lies unprotected in a clearing. It is foolish, he only reason he is able to come is that Emily is not conscious to stop him. When she is awake and in his presence, he is unable to do anything except what she desires. He is unable even to remember what it is he means to do. All he can think of is to fulfill her every wish. But once she falls asleep, a part of him goes free. And hovering outside Leah's window, he is free to remember._

_He finds himself here more and more often. And the more he does so, the better he understands. Here, the urge to return to his fiancée is almost nonexistent. Here he only remembers his first love. On the third night, he realizes why. Tonight he does not even bother leaving his bed to send his spirit journeying. In this form, he is free of his wolf. His wolf is part of his body, and it lies slumbering next to its imprint, Emily. But separated from his body, he is separate from the wolf, and therefore separate from his instinctual need for Emily. And he never forgot the woman he fell in love with when he was young._

_In sleep, her face is free of its daytime worries. Her skin is soft and unblemished, her full lips parted, no furrow between her brows, no pain in her closed eyes. One arm is casually tossed above her head, the other resting on her bare stomach where her camisole has bunched up. Her breasts strain against the fabric, her dark nipples outlined prominently to his hungry eyes. She wears the small cotton top, a simple pair of bikini briefs and nothing else. The single sheet on her bed is tangled around her feet. _

_She is simply stunning. _

_How did he ever walk away from her? He presses himself against the glass of her window. Just when he works up the nerve to push his spectral form through it and into her private sanctuary, an action so similar to the way he used to sneak in to this very room after climbing up the tree right outside, he feels himself pulled involuntarily back to his body. _

He opens his eyes to the sight of Emily bending over him. She must have woken to use the bathroom or get a drink of water and decided to rouse him. For a split second he is angry that she pulled him away from Leah. But then his eyes focus in the dark, he looks into her eyes, and his desire for Leah sinks down into the depths of his mind. Emily lowers her lips to his, and he melts into her. She wants to make love languidly, gently, and he obliges, grasping her loosely by her hips as she lowers herself onto him. By morning, he hardly remembers what happened the night before.

_But the next night, he finds himself outside Leah's window again. Tonight rather than sleeping peacefully, she is having a nightmare. She frowns in her sleep. She turns over and back, grabs at her pillow and lets go. Her eyes flutter behind her lids. She mutters incoherent, frustrated sounds. He ponders what to do. Leave her to her private thoughts? Enter and try to wake her? Comfort her aching soul? Try to make love to her as Jacob would do with Bella? He is just working up the nerve to pass through her glass when he hears her whimper. A tear slides down her cheek and she mumbles one audible word. His name. _

_But as he holds his hands out to feel the glass and lean in, he hears his name again. But this is not Leah calling to him. _

_Instead, he turns to see a huge russet wolf glaring at him from the treeline. His Alpha says nothing further, just waits for him to leave. So he returns to his Emily. _

He enters his body and falls into slumber instantly. But when he dreams, he dreams of Leah.

The next morning, he wakes to voices in the kitchen. Emily is speaking to someone. One of the pack. He stays still until he hears the polite voice of Seth Clearwater responding to something Emily has said. She sounds startled and he eventually figures out why. Seth has refused Emily's offer to make breakfast, a first for a male pack member. Sam rouses himself, takes a quick shower, and heads downstairs. Seth has his hands wrapped around a steaming mug of tea, but Emily's tray of muffins sits untouched in front of him. She bustles around the kitchen preparing a hot breakfast for Sam.

Turning to him with a smile, she says, "You'd better watch out for this one. He must be coming down with something. Doesn't want to eat!"

With a tight smile Seth says, "I'm on my way to school, but I had something I needed to ask you about. Take a walk with me?" Seth gives Emily a little wave and they step out onto the porch. When they are out of her hearing range, Seth turns to Sam with a glare. "What do you think you're doing?" Sam can't think of any decent response to Leah's younger brother, so after waiting for an answering and getting none, Seth continues, "I used to think that none of this was your fault. I just felt bad for you. Can you believe that? You broke her heart, you shacked up with our cousin, but then I found out what really happened. And I actually felt bad for you. I saw how guilty you felt about it. I'm some kind of idiot." Sam can't meet the boy's eyes. Even though he still stands much taller and broader than Seth, the boy's energy is far superior to his. When he still doesn't respond, Seth continues, "And I can't believe I'm asking you this, but what about Emily? You're going to break her heart when she finds out what you've been doing. Are you prepared to do that? Are you prepared to leave her and get down on your knees and beg my sister for forgiveness?"

Sam chokes up immediately. He looks at the ground and sticks his hands in his pockets. His imprint answers for him, "Of course not Seth. I can't leave Emily. You know that."

Seth looks up at him with fury in his eyes. "Then get it through your thick skull that you can't have them both." At Sam's silence, Seth shakes his head, disgusted, and begins to walk away. Just when he is almost out of earshot Seth turns around to face Sam, who is still looking after him. "And just for the record, I'm not so sure that you can't. I'm beginning to think that you just won't."

So quietly that Seth barely hears, Sam whispers, "She won't let me go. It's different for Paul and Rachel. Emily won't let me go."

Seth answers, "She's not doing a very good job of keeping you, either. Maybe I should be talking to her instead of talking to you."

Now Sam becomes angry. "Don't you drag her into this. This is between me and your sister."

Seth answers incredulously, "Drag her? From where? She's knee deep in the muck already! She jumped right in!" He can't stand to have this discussion any longer and walks away.

X-x-x-x-X

The next time Sam sees either of the Clearwaters is the Friday evening before Jacob's seventeenth birthday. He has avoided spirit walking altogether. There is no particular need right now. Emily is much happier with his increased presence around the house, and his wolf is content to be around her. But it does not stop him from dreaming of Leah. His powers, weaker than Jacob's, do not actually carry him to Leah's room. He does not meet her in the spirit plane. But he thinks of her nonetheless.

He and Emily arrive at the tribal center at eight pm. The time is set such that Rachel can return from Seattle to attend. Everyone has arrived except Jacob, Rachel, and Bella. Even Charlie is already waiting. The wolves and the council members mill about, but Sam's eyes are immediately drawn to Leah, who leans against the wall next to the fireplace, arms folded across her chest. Emily spots her at the same moment that Sam does. She makes a beeline for her cousin. Sam sees Seth's glare from the opposite side of the room and wisely chooses to take a seat next to Jared and Kim.

Emily greets Leah, who gives her a carefully neutral greeting in return. Emily takes Leah's hand and draws her down onto a nearby couch. Leah visibly stiffens and stares at their joined hands with an inscrutable look on her face.

Emily says gently, "I heard about Brad. I'm sorry it didn't work out."

Leah's mouth drops open, but nothing comes out. She nods slowly and extricates her hand from Emily's. "It's okay." She clearly can't think of anything else to say, and scoots a few inches further away from Emily.

"You're strong, Leah, I know you are. But you don't have to put up a front. Not for me. I know you, remember?"

"Yeah. I'm really fine, so just drop it, okay?" Leah shakes her head.

Emily's eyes plead with her. "I want to be here for you, Leah. I want you to know you're not alone."

Leah squints at Emily with a little frown and stands. Her voice is clipped. "Sure. Not alone. Plenty of fish in the sea. Wasn't meant to be. Get right back up on that horse, et cetera, and so forth. Got it. Great talk." She can't hide her sarcasm, but hurries away before she loses her temper, brushing past Sam on her way out the front door.

Sam looks at Emily, whose hurt expression begs for him to replace it with a smile. He rushes to her side and kisses her scars automatically. In a small voice, Emily says, "She hates me. She still hates me. I miss her, Sam." Kim comes over and gently pulls her into an adjacent room, reminding her that all the wolves just heard what she said.

Sam's imprint pushes at him to fix it, to give her what she wants, to sweep the pain away. So against his better judgement, he follows Leah out the door. He finds her leaning against the wall around the side of the building. She blows out long, thin breaths of air and watches the condensation fog in front of her face.

"You could stand to be nicer to Em, you know. She was happy for you when she heard about that guy, even if it was hard for me."

He knows how foolish this is as soon as it leaves his lips. But the imprint forces him to say it. His imprint is sad about Leah's attitude, so words tumble from his lips in a thoughtless attempt to fix things for Emily. But a little voice in his brain screams at him to shut up, that he cannot possibly be reprimanding Leah for her polite but cool treatment of the woman living the life she thought would be hers.

Leah's eyes widen. "I could stand to be nicer to her?" she repeats incredulously.

Sam hastens to correct himself. "I just mean she didn't mean anything bad by that. She wants you to be happy."

"Then maybe she can leave me alone. Maybe she can get you to leave me alone."

He is torn between pleading his imprint's case and the injured look in Leah's eyes. "You used to be best friends. Can you really blame her for wanting that again?"

"What exactly is it that you expect me to do? She wants me to be her bridesmaid? I'm her bridesmaid. You want me to be civil? I'm civil. You don't want me to yell at her for taking you from me? I don't yell. You don't want me to scream at her for choosing a guy she barely knew over her best friend? I don't scream. I can play nice, Sam. But what you're asking for? It's too much." She starts to walk away, then freezes. "Fuck. No, wait. I don't even know what you're asking for."

Sam's mind is a fog. Somewhere inside he knows his true feelings for Leah, but Emily is only a few feet away. She is here, and she needs him. Emily wants her friend back, Sam's imprint wants whatever Emily wants, but somewhere in the recesses of his mind Sam knows that he wants something completely different. But standing here in front of Leah, still able to hear snatches of Emily's voice through the walls, he has no idea what to say.

Leah spits out, "What the hell do you want, Sam?"

Jacob appears behind Sam with Rachel and Bella in tow. He had pulled up, unnoticed, in an unfamiliar Volkswagen. A council member had paid him a pretty penny to replace the fuel injection pump on the car, and Jacob plans on returning it to her tonight. He sends the girls inside. "He wants both of you. He doesn't want to have to choose."

Sam drops his head in frustration. Ultimately, this is the truth. He just hasn't admitted it to anyone, not even himself.

Leah actually laughs because she's sick of crying. "Well fuck that," she says, "He chose a long time ago. He chose Emily. Or she chose him. Whatever, I don't know who picked whom, just that no one picked me. He doesn't get to take it back now, and neither does she." She storms back into the hall.

Jacob glares at Sam. "Have you talked to Emily about this?"

Sam shakes his head. "I don't know what to tell myself, let alone what to tell her."

"Do you love Emily?"

"Of course," Sam responds instantly.

"Do you love Leah?" Jacob asks. They both know the answer. Of course he does. But Sam can't get past the imprint choking his throat. "If you can't even say it out loud, then you don't deserve her. And you need to stop torturing her."

They head inside the building where everyone is assembled to discuss Bella's offer. Bella is already seated next to Billy, and Jacob takes the empty chair next to her. He peeks at Rachel, who sits by Paul nudging his shoulder with hers. They are both smiling and looking at the ground.

Billy begins. "Thanks everyone for getting together tonight. We have a matter to discuss that affects everyone here. Bella Swan has offered to donate a large sum of money to the council to support the activities of our protectors. I've spoken with several of you about this, as has she, but before we make any decisions, we wanted to bring it to an open forum for discussion. I'll let Bella take the floor first. Bella, dear?"

Bella clears her throat and nervously begins, "You all know what the pack has done for me. You know as well as I do the sacrifices these guys have had to make because the Cullens moved back and because Edward brought even more of them here. I'd like to start a fund through the council to support them. And I'd like it to perpetuate. I think there should be enough to support future generations of wolves."

Mrs. Fuller raises her hand. "We've heard some rumors, but I'd like to just ask you. Where is this money coming from?"

"Edward left it to me in his will," Bella answers.

The older woman immediately narrows her eyes. "I don't think we're interested in blood money. No offense, dear. But that sounds tainted."

Jacob says nothing, but he reaches out to squeeze Bella's hand. She clarifies, "It's family money. His parents left him their estate when they died, but he had no need to spend it. A hundred years sitting in the stock market, and it just grew. That's what Carlisle told me, anyway."

"Just grew?" Old Quil scoffs, but he has a smile on his face. "I think it had a little extra help than that."

Bella nods reluctantly. "You all know about Alice's psychic powers? Well, she makes good investments."

Mrs. Fuller shakes her head. "Doesn't seem right, does it?"

Paul chimes in, "There's not exactly a law against that, though, is there?"

Charlie speaks up. "Seems fitting to me. Cullen screwed up your lives, only makes sense he should make up for it somehow."

Sue turns to him. "I see your point, but this is your daughter's money now. She's suffered as much as any of the pack from what he did to her. Don't you want that safety net for your own child?"

Charlie smiles ruefully. "There's plenty to go around."

Old Quil asks, "How much money are you thinking of, Bella?"

Bella flushes and looks at the floor. "I thought about the whole thing, but my dad talked me out of that. Just because it's a round number, $100 million?"

Jared chokes on the soda he is drinking. Paul sticks his hand up and immediately says, "I vote yes," before Rachel yanks down his hand.

Billy mediates. "The benefits of accepting such an offer are obvious. I want to hear the objections."

Sue asks, "That's an awful lot of money going to a handful of teenagers whom most of the community don't recognize as protectors. How is that going to look?"

Charlie fields this question. "I don't think Bella means to split that sum evenly among the boys. You could take a few million and rebuild this center, put some into the tribal school, the library if you want. But if you want it to last into perpetuity, a big chunk should just be invested so it can sustain itself for the future."

"Scholarship money," Jared adds. "Not just for us, for anybody."

Collin's mother Connie adds, "Grant funding. Small business loans. If we're smart, we could do all kinds of things with that." The council members break in with their own ideas and pet projects, and Bella gets a little lost in the discussion.

Mrs. Fuller keeps frowning and says, "Just doesn't feel right."

Sam agrees with her. "I don't like it either. No offense, Bella. But we certainly aren't doing what we do to get rich."

Bella doesn't know how to respond, but Rachel answers, "Of course not, and I don't exactly see how Bella is going to force anything on you. You wouldn't have to take any of it, would you?" She says it while looking at Emily, who is staring at Sam with a furrow in her brow. Sam may not be worried about their paying their bills, but she is.

The discussion continues into the evening. Collin and Brady wander home before the meeting is over. Jacob and Quil leave for patrol. Sam actively engages in the discussion, continuing to object to accepting the money. Paul wanders to the vending machine to get a soda, and Emily rises to follow.

She reaches for his arm and gently asks, "How're you doing?"

He looks at her in surprise as he grabs his drink. "I think I'm about to get rich, so pretty good."

She laughs and shakes her head. "Not that. You and Rachel. Are you doing okay?"

He nods. Emily means well, but he knows she doesn't understand. "We're in a good place, Rachel and me. I'm not exactly starving for female companionship, and we still see each other plenty. I talk to her just about every night we don't get together, too."

Emily sits in a nearby seat, and he joins her. "It has to be hard, though, knowing she's with someone else."

"It was pretty bad at first, I'm not gonna lie. But it's really not so bad anymore."

Emily looks a little lost. "I don't understand," she says, staring at her hands. "It just seems to cruel of her, what she's done to you. And to Elle. It's selfish. It doesn't seem fair to either of you."

"To me?" Paul responds. "What do you think happened, exactly?"

"Telling you that you have to be with other girls? Getting you together with some random woman to ease her conscience so that she can be with someone else? It's not fair to you, and it's not fair to Elle."

Paul frowns. He doesn't appreciate Emily disparaging Rachel in this way. "Did Sam tell you that she offered to dump her boyfriend for me?"

Emily is obviously shocked. "No. What happened?"

"Rachel was giving me a choice, Em. She was giving both of us a choice. Yeah, of course the instant I saw her, I wanted her. I wanted her to be mine. It was overwhelming and crazy and the most intense thing I had ever felt. But I was a stranger to her, Em. Just some kid she barely remembered. She made me take it slow. She got to know me, and I got to know her. She didn't tell me I had to sleep with Elle, she made me make an honest effort to get to know another woman. She told me to make friends with a girl. Any girl. Leah was the one who dragged me back to Elle's cafe, not Rachel. But I was attracted to Elle long before I got to know Rach. And the whole time, she called me, she let me come visit her, she came home to see me. She's my best friend, Em. I love her, and she loves me. And on New Year's Eve she told me that if I didn't think I could ever really fall for someone other than her, she'd dump her boyfriend for me."

"And you said no?" Emily says incredulously.

Paul nods. "I was tempted to take her up on the offer, of course I was. She's the most gorgeous woman I've ever laid eyes on. She's hilarious and warm and her heart is so big. She's crazy smart and just all around perfect. And we'd be good together. I know we would. But if that's how I get her, I'm never going to know if she really wants to be with me, or if she is just giving up the life she really wants for my sake. I want all of her, no reservations. And that's not what I'd get. Plus she was right. Maybe it's just 'cause she wants it so bad for me, but I can be with another woman."

"How?" Emily asks with wide eyes.

"I imprinted. I didn't get castrated," Paul scoffs. "I'm not going to marry Elle, and she doesn't want to marry me. She knows how I feel about Rach. But we work together right now. And knowing I can have this with Elle, well, I figure if I can feel this way about her, I bet I can feel other things, bigger things, for other women. If you had asked me in that first week after I imprinted if I could even look at another woman, I'd probably have ripped your head off. But then I got to know Rach. And yeah, I fell in love with her. Course I did. But I still get her, she's still around all the time, we talk, we get together, she's not going anywhere. I trust her not to leave me forever. It's not just enough, Em. It's right for us. And I'm grateful. Because she set me free, basically, without taking herself away. She gave me the choice, and I'm not taking that for granted."

He downs his drink in one gulp, buys another, and then turns back to her. "You gonna be okay?" he asks.

Emily nods automatically, and he leaves her sitting in the darkened room by herself. Outside, the council votes in favor of accepting the money. Emily doesn't notice, and for the moment, she doesn't care.

X-x-x-x-X


	16. Chapter 15

A/N: Dreamscapes was just nominated for three Fandom Choice Awards over at Tricky Raven (Best Suspense, Best Love Scene, and Best Bella). Thanks for the nomination! And as always, thanks to my beta, Babs 81410.

X-x-x-x-X  
January 14  
X-x-x-x-X

On the morning of Jacob's seventeenth birthday, he wakes with empty arms but the smell of bacon wafting to his nose. He managed to sleep through Charlie leaving for work, and he counts himself lucky that the Chief of Police didn't discover him in Bella's bed. He normally does a much better job of waking up before Charlie, or at least hearing the stirring from the other bedroom, but lately he and his wolf have both been exhausted. He spends inordinate amounts of energy suppressing his wolf's aggression during the school day around Jasmine. But he has gained control over himself with the additional exposure. He avoids her as much as he can and ignores her whenever they are in close proximity. When she tries to talk to him, if at all possible, he pretends he has somewhere else to be and rushes off. Pacific Tribal History continues to be a challenge since her seat is right next to his, and he can't think of any conceivable reason to convince the teacher to move either one of them. But he finds that as long as he doesn't touch her, being around her slowly grows easier. His wolf stays on high alert, but the more time that passes without her displaying a specific threat, the more he is able to relax.

Billy, of all people, warns him against letting his guard down too far. He hasn't talked to his father about his mysterious arousal from her touch, finding the topic too embarrassing to discuss, but has explained that his wolf is aggressive toward her while no one else's is. Billy tells him to trust his instincts but warns him to be very careful. The last thing he needs is to phase in the middle of school.

With care, he even finds that his libido is manageable. He has not had to resort to ice or pain since the day Bella offered to have phone sex with him over the lunch hour. Knowing he will get to see his Bella soon keeps Jacob's hormones at bay during the day. But his already voracious sexual appetite for her ratchets even higher. Due to the physical connection between them, hers rises to match it. They have to get creative in order to fulfill their mutual need. It is only due to Jacob's supernatural sense of hearing that they have not yet been caught during one of their trysts. And if Billy and Charlie wonder why the four of them have dinner an hour later than usual every day, they don't say anything about it.

But on his birthday, Jacob finds himself alone, truly alone, with Bella. There is no resisting her and no reason to try. He greets her at the stove by slipping his arms around her waist and squeezing her tightly. She giggles and squirms, trying to reach the frying bacon with her spatula to keep it from burning while simultaneously attempting not to overcook the pancakes. The movement only brushes her against his erection.

"Mmm. Put that away and come back to bed," he mutters into her hair, sliding one hand down toward her pantyline and the other under her cotton shirt.

She moans before attempting halfheartedly to push his hands away. "Hey, mister. I've worked hard on making you a nice birthday breakfast. You should try to enjoy it."

"I want to enjoy you." He brushes her hair off her shoulder and kisses his way down her neck.

"You can. Don't you think you should fuel up first? We're alone all day long until your party."

He grins and snickers, "There's a party in my pants, Bella. Come on in."

She manages to separate herself and smacks him with a dishtowel. "You dork, just for that I might change my mind about spending all day in bed with you."

He shoots her his best puppy dog eyes. "Aww, but it's my birthday. Don't I get what I want on my birthday?"

"Boys who clean their plates get a reward. Not ones who waste their food. Think you can handle that?"

He waggles his brows at her. "What kind of reward do I get?"

She takes the bacon off the stove and slides it onto a plate for him. "You'll just have to eat your breakfast and find out, won't you?" She gathers up fluffy pancakes and orange juice and sets them on the table. "C'mon, when was the last time you weren't hungry?"

He digs in happily, unable to resist the heaping piles of food in front of him. With a stuffed mouth, he mumbles, "Ungry fo foo, or ungry fo oo?"

She laughs and sits down in front of him with a pancake for herself. "Both."

He swallows. "Last time I was completely full of food was when Solomon cooked for us. That lasted for two entire hours. Last time I wasn't hungry for you was, oh, for the minute or two after we finished having sex last night."

She quirks a brow. "Only a minute?"

He shrugs. "I could have gone for a third round, Bells. I can almost always go again if you're naked in front of me."

She giggles. She had passed out immediately, curled up on the floor of her room where Jacob had just taken her in order to avoid waking Charlie with the bedsprings squeaking. He had gently carried her to bed and curled himself around her. "Don't you ever get tired, Jake?"

He smiles back at her. "Oh, I'm not complaining, honey. I fell asleep right after you did. It's a good thing you stop me sometimes; otherwise I'd probably turn into some disgusting sex hermit. I'd forget to eat, I'd forget to drink, I'd forget to sleep, I'd probably only bathe when I could drag you into the shower with me. I'd wither away and die since I'd forget to take care of any other essential daily needs. But what a way to go, huh?"

She laughs back at him and points at the clock. "Well, today you have until three o'clock. Charlie will be home at four, and this house can't smell like sex when he comes home, my bed has to be made neatly, and it'll give us time to shower. If we have sex in a back room during your party tonight, you won't live to see your eighteenth birthday; your brothers will murder us for subjecting them to our, uh, personal activities again."

This time it is Jacob who blushes and not Bella. "I'm really sorry, honey. It's like I have no control over my own body anymore. When I have to have you, I just have to have you."

She smirks and answers, "I'm not exactly complaining, Jacob. I consider myself a lucky girl, in fact. But if we keep doing it in public places, our luck is going to run out, and then Charlie will have to arrest us both, and then I'll die of humiliation, and then where will you be?"

He snorts. "Stuck in the Forks PD holding cell with a giant hard-on and no way to relieve it ever again?"

"Can't have that. So you'd better hurry up and eat so we can go upstairs and try to work out all that sexual tension before we find ourselves naked in the laundry room with our dads and your brothers right outside."

Jacob takes this as some kind of a challenge and is done with his breakfast in three minutes flat. But Bella makes him wait another five minutes more, sitting alone on her bed, before she enters clothed only in a bright red blush and two strategically wrapped huge red ribbons. Jacob pulls her toward him and unwraps what he calls "the very best birthday present anybody ever gave anybody else".

Bella ensures that they are fully clothed, the house aired out, and her bed neatly made before Charlie arrives home. She makes sure to shower as well, disappointing Jacob by doing so alone, since Leah has teased her more than once about smelling like a brothel even after she bathes.

As a birthday present to Jacob, Charlie puts Bella in the backseat of the cruiser instead of making Jacob sit behind the steel mesh. She pouts and suggests that Charlie should sit in the back himself and let Jacob drive the car for his birthday, a suggestion that goes nowhere.

When they arrive at Jacob's house, they hear Leah's and Rachel's voices. Billy nods at Charlie surreptitiously, and Charlie excuses himself to make a phone call.

"So are you going to come next weekend?" Rachel asks Leah.

"No, but soon. I think in two weeks I can cut my Monday classes. I'll be there for the weekend too, but it's more useful to be there when classes are going, don't you think?"

"Makes sense. You should stay with me. I can show you around."

"That'd be fun, but I don't want to make you stick around Seattle if you were planning on coming home."

"Nah. You and Paul can carpool together if he's still planning on coming up. We'll have fun!"

Charlie enters and asks, "Checking out UDub?" and Leah nods.

"Yeah. Going all the way to Eugene was too far. But I can get back home pretty fast from Seattle if I need to."

Jacob enters behind them. "You don't have to stay so close, Leah. Not on account of the pack. Go where you want to go. We'll be okay. It's a big pack, after all."

Leah nods at him. "I appreciate that, but Seattle's far enough away without being too far. It's not just the pack. Who would torment Seth if I moved across the country? My mom wouldn't stop me from going somewhere else either, but my dad hasn't been gone that long, and I don't want to put her through another separation right now."

"Do your credits transfer?" Bella asks.

Leah nods. "I think so. If I get in, I can start in the fall. Maybe move sometime during the summer."

Just then, Jacob spots the feast that Rachel and Leah have prepared. It consists entirely of junk food. Bella had also made several appetizers the night before, and Charlie pulls them out of the trunk. Jacob tries to stick his finger directly into a bowl of caramel sauce, earning himself a reprimand and a slap on the wrist with a metal spatula from his sister.

"Hey! Don't be gross," Rachel chides.

"But it looks so yummy, and it's my birthday!" Jacob protests.

She rolls her eyes. "That doesn't give you leave to go sticking your filthy paws right in. Here," she hands him a smaller bowl of the sauce. "Knock yourself out. Leave the big bowl for your guests."

Jacob's eyes light up like a little boy on Christmas morning. "You're the best sister ever!"

So when Bella wanders in to find him, he is seated at the kitchen table scooping the sticky, sweet goo up with his fingers, not bothering to eat the spiced apples that are supposed to go with the dip, or even to use a spoon. "What are you doing?" she asks.

He pouts. "Rachel said I could."

Leah follows Bella in and snorts at them. "Big mistake, Rach, giving the kid so much sugar. Now you're never going to be able to put him to sleep tonight."

Rachel plays along. "You know, today's a big day for him. So many people coming over to see him and everything. He was going to be too excited to fall asleep at his normal bedtime anyway."

Leah nods. "Yeah, guess he's getting to be a big boy anyway. Might even let him stay up until midnight, huh? But he'll need a bath after getting himself covered in caramel."

"Hey!" Jacob protests, but his voice is muffled due the sticky mess in his mouth.

A laughing voice sounds from the living room. "He is getting awfully spoiled, isn't he?" Quil calls out.

"If you don't watch out, he's gonna turn into a total brat," Embry adds. His two oldest friends appear in the kitchen doorway with Sam.

"Happy birthday, Jacob," Sam says.

"Thanks," Jacob answers. "Where's Em?"

"Girl's day with Kim. Nails, or haircut, or something. They'll be here later."

In the kitchen, too many large bodies are crammed into too small a space. The boys raid the food as soon as Leah and Rachel can set it out. The girls' reprimands don't even slow them down until some minutes later, Jacob perks up at the distinctive, clanking sound of a truck rolling up the drive.

Billy grins at his son. "I think your birthday present just arrived, son."

Jacob raises his eyebrows and looks at his father curiously before bolting outside. Bella follows him but doesn't get through the front door before she hears him whooping with excitement. Rachel and Leah follow outside to see what all the fuss is about. They discover Jacob drooling over an old, rusty classic car with only one door hanging off the back of a tow truck.

Embry lets out a low whistle. "Is that what I think it is?"

Jacob circles the vehicle, obviously speechless.

Rachel frowns at the car. "It only has two wheels," she says, noting that both front tires are missing.

Quil yells, "Who cares? It's a Mustang!"

Jacob finally finds his voice. In hushed tones, he murmurs, "A 1965, V8, 4 speed manual, toploader transmission Mustang fucking Fastback."

"It's your next project, son," Billy wheels himself down the ramp.

"Are you kidding me?" Jacob breathes. He finally tears his eyes away from the car. "This is too much, dad."

"Didn't cost as much as you might think," Billy states.

Bella is confused. "It doesn't look like it cost that much," she whispers to Rachel. But she also knows that even if was destined for the junkyard, Billy doesn't have much spare cash to throw around, and this is certainly out of the normal price range for a birthday present.

Charlie speaks up. "It might just be that the police confiscated this a month or so ago, and then someone might have forgotten to include it in the public list for the monthly impound auction."

"Might be that I was the only bidder," Billy laughs.

"Nice to have connections!" Embry laughs, circling the car with Jacob. "This thing is gonna be beautiful, man!"

"I don't see it," Bella leans over to Rachel again.

"Wait until I fix her up, Bells," Jacob answers.

"She's gonna be prettier than you!" Quil snorts.

Bella expects Jacob to defend her from Quil's joke, but Jacob just nods somberly. "If I paint her cherry red, she will be. Or should she be black? I think this is, hands down, the best birthday I've ever had." He breaks into a wide grin. "Dad, Charlie, thank you so much!"

Bella nudges her father's arm with her shoulder. It isn't exactly the same as throwing her arms around him and squealing. But between the two of them, two people who aren't very physically affectionate with with each other, it is basically equivalent.

"You're welcome, son." Charlie answers, and more quietly, to Bella, "Easy to forget he's just a kid sometimes, isn't it?" He pats her shoulder as they watch the boys ooh and ahh over the car. "But they can all just be boys tonight."

The timer rings in the kitchen, and Rachel and Leah return inside to pull three trays of cookies out. Sam trails in after them.

"Are those what I think they are?" Sam's eyes widen to match the youthful, expressive happiness on Jacob's face outside.

Rachel looks between Sam and Leah, who keeps her back to Sam. Rachel answers, "Peanut butter chocolate chip, why, do you want one?"

Sam moves close enough to pluck a hot cookie off the sheet. "God. These are amazing." He takes a bite and closes his eyes with a blissful, "Mmmm..." But by the time he opens his eyes, Leah is gone.

Rachel peers around Sam's shoulder but doesn't see Leah. "Leah knows Jake likes those."

Sam sighs. "Yeah. Me too. They're her specialty." Emily makes amazing muffins, but her cookies simply don't stand up to Leah's. When they were dating, Sam used to beg her to make them nearly every weekend. He would raid the bowl for the uncooked dough so that by the time she finished, she only ever produced about two thirds of what she intended. Plenty of times, one of them would end up with peanut butter smeared on a cheek or a nose, happily kissed off by the other.

He hasn't had his favorite cookie in over a year. In fact, he has eaten neither peanuts nor peanut butter in that long. At first, Emily had tried to make them for him. Between the fact that hers simply weren't as good and the fact that they reminded him of Leah, he didn't want to eat hers. But unable to tell her the truth, he simply pretends that he doesn't like peanut butter, and she doesn't even keep it in the house anymore. But it used to be his favorite food.

He turns to trail after Leah. She has gone to the freezer in the basement to get ice cream. "The cookies are great," he says awkwardly.

She pauses when she hears him, retrieves four half gallons of ice cream, and nods to him. "Thanks," she says brusquely. She tries to brush past him, but he blocks the stairwell.

"I miss you," he blurts out.

Leah has no idea what to say. She has spent months missing him, and she is tired of it. "You'll get over it, I'm sure," she snaps.

"I'm not," he answers.

Unable to get past his bulk, she sets the ice cream on the lid of the freezer. "Is that why you've been stalking me at night lately?"

He looks at her in surprise. "You know?" For a brief, hopeful moment, he wonders if she has been able to feel his spirit hovering outside her room.

She nods. "The other day I took patrol over from Seth. He was trying not to think about it, but I saw his memory of you sitting against the tree outside my room. And I hear you've been practicing your spirit walk around my house. I don't understand why or how you're doing it, but it can't go on. You need to stop. "

He shakes his head. "I don't think I can," he admits.

Her chest constricts and she shakes her head in frustration. "I don't get it, Sam. Why now? You don't care enough to stay with me, don't care enough to try to make it work, but the second it looks like I might actually be making a life for myself, you start hanging around like a jealous lover? Meanwhile, your body is lying in bed with Emily? What the fuck?"

"I can't stay away from you," he breathes.

"Now? Now you can't stay away from me? One day we're engaged, the next you won't even look me in the eye, but now you can't stay away? What about the imprint? The second you met Emily you dropped me like yesterday's moldy leftovers. I've seen inside that brain of yours. All you can think about is Emily. Anything you feel for me gets buried. So what gives?" she demands, eyes blazing.

"My wolf is part of my body, Lee Lee, but when I'm outside my body, when I spirit walk, I leave the wolf behind."

"So?" she asks, confused.

"When I'm outside my body, I can't feel the imprint."

She narrows her eyes at him. "What are you saying?"

He takes a deep breath. "When I'm in spirit form, my mind is unclouded. I remember who I really am. I remember who I really love."

Leah gets an involuntary swell of hope, and he sees it in her eyes. But a shade comes down over her face. "But when you're in your body," she prompts.

"The imprint takes over again," he reluctantly admits.

She rolls her eyes. "So you're basically saying that you like to haunt me. Is that it?"

"No, no," he sputters.

"Fuck off, Sam." She turns back for the ice cream, then stops and turns back toward him. "Wait. You're in your body now. How come you're even able to tell me this?"

He frowns and approaches her. He reaches out for her hands, but she backs away. Frustrated, he balls his fists at his sides. "Because I'm still in here, Lee Lee." He pokes at his own chest. "I don't disappear completely in my body."

"But you do, Sam." She shakes her head wearily. "I've seen it a hundred times. She walks into the room, and you turn into this different person."

"But she's not here right now," he protests.

"And that allows you to talk to me?" He nods. She frowns and continues, "But I know you. I know this... what you've become. There's a part of you right now that wants to go to her. That wants nothing more than to be by her side."

"A little," he admits.

She shakes her head and refuses to let herself cry. "No, a lot. I've been in your brain."

He shakes his head. "You've been in my brain when I'm a wolf. It's the strongest then. The imprint is the strongest when I'm the wolf. Because the imprint belongs to him. It's different when I'm in my own body. There's the man and there's the wolf."

"Fine," she huffs. "So what are you saying? That you're torn? That you feel guilty about me? I get that. I always got that. I guess I understood that better than you did at first, even. I don't see what difference it makes. And I really don't see what any of this has to do with me."

"It has everything to do with you!" he pleads. "Don't you see that? Don't you see how hard this is for me?"

"Hard for you? Really? That's why you've trapped me down here?" Her voice drops in anger. "To complain about how difficult this is for you?"

He grabs his own hair in frustration, as if to yank it out in tufts. "No. No. This is coming out all wrong. You're twisting my words."

"Then spit it out. Say your piece and let me go," she demands.

"That's just it! That's it exactly! I can't let you go!"

Suddenly exhausted, she slumps back against the freezer. "Let's just say for one second that what I do is up to you." She looks up and glares at him. "Which it isn't. But let's pretend for a second that it is. What exactly would you have me do, Sam?"

"Don't move to Seattle. Just stay," he pleads brokenly. He wants more from her, so much more, but he cannot reconcile it with his imprint.

"And? And what?" she asks softly. When he doesn't respond, when all he does it stare at her with pain in his beautiful, dark eyes, eyes she used to lose herself in, eyes that used to be focused on her and her alone, she asks, "Stay and watch you and Emily make a family together? Stay in the pack forever? Stay to defend your imprint against monsters? Stay here, no college, no career, no family, no children, no love of my own?"

As tears form in his eyes, he chokes out, "We love you, Lee Lee." It is the closest he can manage. He means to say "I", but he imprint twists it into the "we" of the pack as a whole.

It isn't enough. She shakes her head. "I already have a brother, Sam. I already have friends. They'll care about me the same if I'm here or if I leave. I don't need more brothers." She steps close to him, as close as he has let her come since he imprinted on Emily. She reaches up and strokes his cheek gently, his five o'clock shadow tickling her skin. Her voice is barely audible. "Once upon a time you loved me, really loved me." He squeezes his eyes shut, causing the tears to roll down his cheeks. He leans into her hand, and she brushes them away with her thumbs. "Once upon a time you wanted me to be happy. Let me be happy, Sam." She stands up on her tiptoes and lightly touches her lips to his.

Time freezes, and heat flushes through his body.

When he opens his eyes, he finds himself weeping silently. The room is cold but for the remnants of warmth on her lips, and she is gone.

When he pulls himself together, Jacob, Bella, and Rachel have joined Billy and Charlie in the living room. He doesn't see Leah, but the kitchen isn't empty. Seth blocks the doorway. "What are you doing?" Seth asks him with carefully controlled anger.

Sam has no answer that Seth will accept. "I don't know," he admits.

"Are you leaving Emily?" Seth wants to know.

"No," his imprint answers automatically.

"Don't you dare ask her anything like that again unless you're fully prepared to leave Emily," Seth hisses.

"I don't want to hurt her," Sam whispers. Neither of them is certain of the woman to whom he refers.

"Well, you're failing miserably on that point," Seth responds. It's true for either one of them. Although he hasn't said anything to Emily, and she hasn't asked, she can sense the difference in him. She herself has been second guessing everything about her current life after speaking with Paul. Sam wonders if that is the reason he has been able to feel things so acutely for Leah lately, at least when he is out of Emily's presence. The imprint is supposed to give her what she wants. Has watching Paul and Rachel made her want something different from him?

How much of what he wants is what she wants? How much of what he wants is what his wolf wants? And how much of what he wants is actually what he wants? He can hardly tell anymore.

Embry and Quil re-enter soon thereafter. They distract Seth enough that he leaves Sam alone, but Leah's brother sends him death glares whenever he catches Sam watching Leah from across the room. The house fills gradually, but Sam only sees Leah. She manages not to glance in his direction a single time. If he moves toward her, she moves away. If he stands in her line of vision, she turns. As his heart aches, he wonders: is this what it was like for her when he stopped seeing her and starting seeing only Emily?

When Jared arrives, he pulls Sam outside to speak alone. "What are you doing, man?" he asks.

Sam feigns ignorance. "What do you mean?"

Jared gives him a pointed look. "Come on. You know what I mean. What's up with you and Leah?"

"Nothing," he responds, too quickly. "Nothing's up with us."

Jared narrows his eyes and glances through the window. "I don't get it. It's about time that girl got over you. She's been pining away for something dead and gone, something that wasn't ever meant to be. And the minute she finally pulls her head out of the sand, you decide it's her turn again?"

Sam frowns. "You don't understand," he signs. Jared is purely, simply happy with Kim. He had never fallen in love before he imprinted, and absolutely no one got hurt from the imprint. He has nothing to compare his current state of happiness to. "The problem isn't that I feel torn up about Leah, the problem is that I didn't feel this way sooner."

Jared shakes his head. "You felt bad about it, Sam. Nobody thinks you were happy about dumping her. But it had to be done. Everybody understands."

"But they shouldn't!" he exclaims. "It shouldn't be simple and easy to do what I did!"

"How was it supposed to be?" Jared asks. "Drawn out and agonizing? String Leah along when all you wanted was Emily? You broke up with her for a reason. If she's giving you shit about it now, that's her problem, not yours. You had no choice."

Sam examines Jared. "Doesn't that bug you? That you had no choice at all?"

Jared just looks at Sam quizzically. "No, why should it? It's so easy. It's perfect. Why would you want any different? The universe told you who you're supposed to be with. Doesn't Em make you happy?"

"Of course," he answers automatically. The imprint brings the words to his lips and shoves away any feelings to the contrary that he has.

"She's perfect for you. She's the one. There's no question," Jared reassures him. "Leah's your past, Emily's your present and your future. Yeah, it's too bad you didn't figure that out five years ago. But there was no way to know."

"Maybe. But what about them?" Sam asks, nodding through the window at the front door, where Paul and Elle have just entered.

"That's different," Jared waves his hand dismissively at the trio. "Rachel wants them together. If Em wanted you with Leah, you could be with her. But she doesn't. Your imprint needs you. End of story. Nothing and no one else matters, Sam."

Sam frowns. But then Jared spots Kim and Emily step in last. He enters the house as Sam nods at him automatically. He feels this, yes, that nothing matters but the imprint, the woman searching the room for him. Everything else blurs away; she is the only thing of value that exists anywhere. But somewhere inside his gut, he has the sneaking suspicion that maybe, just maybe, something else used to matter. That there might be more than one thing in the universe with significance. That Jared's statement might hold a deeper meaning. But before the thought reaches his consciousness, it is swept away, and he follows Jared inside the house, sweeping Emily into his arms with a big grin.

Behind him, Leah shakes her head and turns her back to them. She thinks about leaving but decides against it. For better or worse, these people are her friends as much as they are Sam's or Emily's. Although a part of her wants nothing more than to escape the blank, blissful look on Sam's face, so different that the agony etched across it just minutes before, she forces herself to stay. Rachel rolls her eyes at Sam and Emily when they aren't looking. She pulls Leah into her bedroom to distract her and to remind her of the world outside this house.

Rachel pulls a box from underneath her bed and rifles through it, pulling out two maps and handing them to Leah. "Here. This one's a campus map. And here's a city one. My apartment is right here." She draws a circle around it. "If you transfer in as a sophomore, you can live in the dorm or off campus, either one. The dorm's a good way to meet people, but you know, it's a dorm. You might like your own space better. I really like my neighborhood, but there's decent student housing in other places too." She points out a couple other neighborhoods on the map. The two girls make plans for Leah's upcoming trip.

They are still in Rachel's room when Jacob begins opening the rest of his presents. Nothing else tonight will quite compare to his new old Mustang, but Rachel and Leah are drawn out of the bedroom when they hear appreciative hollers from the boys outside.

The girls emerge to find the pack huddled around a collection of large boxes. Bella says, "I took Solomon's advice. Boys like fire, right?"

"It's not just the fire," Quil breathes. "It's the explosions."

"Such pretty, pretty explosions!" Jared adds.

"What is that?" Rachel asks.

"Fireworks!" Embry exclaims. "Not the dinky little ones that spark on the ground, either!"

"Are those legal?" Leah asks.

"No way," Quil answers.

Sam leans over a box. "Bella, that's several thousand dollars worth of explosives. Illegal ones. Where'd you get those?" He glances at Charlie.

Dryly, Charlie mentions, "Those are only illegal without a permit."

"Right," Embry answers, "But I'm pretty sure Bella doesn't have a permit to buy commercial fireworks."

"No, she can't," he says with a sly grin. He won't tell the boys, but one of his deputies confiscated the fireworks during a raid on a drug dealer's house. The boxes of commercial grade fireworks, complete with the electrical ignition box, have conveniently gone missing from the evidence locker.

Jacob almost looks disappointed when he discovers the electric ignition. "Don't we get to light them on fire?" he asks.

"Son, you may be nearly indestructible, but there's no way I'm letting you clowns near these things with open flames," Billy laughs.

The pack rushes outside to set them up. Charlie tells them to wait until it is light again outside so they can set up safely, but the boys claim that their excellent vision is more than adequate, and Embry announces he knows how to arrange them. Less than a hour later, they put on a show in the night sky.

Bella and Rachel flank Leah where she sits on the ground looking at the bright flashes of light in the sky. Between explosions, Bella watches Leah watching Jacob, who sits on the ground with the ignition panel in his lap. "He looks happy," Leah smiles at him, then leans against Bella. "So does he," she nods towards Paul, who has surreptitiously taken one of the fireworks off to the side with a match. The boys are unable to resist the temptation to set them off the old fashioned way. Paul scoots Elle behind him to a safer position and touches the match to the flame, and moments later, a bright purple starburst explodes above them. A wide smile spreads across Elle's face as the light reflects off her uplifted face, and Paul reaches behind him to twine his hand in hers. She murmurs to Rachel, "You did a good thing for him, Rach." When the sparks fade, Leah can see Paul turn just slightly, just enough to wink at her with a little smile.

Bella leans her head on Leah's shoulder while Rachel turns away from Paul and Elle to look at Emily. She is snuggled under Sam's left arm, and she tucks her hand into the back pocket of his jeans in a small, intimate gesture. Sam stares into the sky as the next explosive shoots into the air with a high whistle. Emily turns to look down at the hand she has pressed against Sam's wallet with a quizzical expression. She whispers something to Sam, who looks down immediately, his nervous glance flicking between Leah and Emily. The couple mutters together in low tones, a frown on Emily's face and a worried expression on Sam's. They hear what sounds like an apology from Sam. "I wonder what's up with them?" Rachel notes idly, not expecting an answer.

Leah sighs but doesn't take her eyes away from the fireworks display. "She just found the engagement ring Sam gave me. I made him take it back on New Year's Day. I guess he's been carrying it around for some reason."

Rachel rolls her eyes. "You'd think by now they'd have their act together."

Leah shrugs. "It'll be easier on them when I go." She squeezes Bella's and Rachel's hands and rises.

"Wait, you mean now?" Rachel asks, "Or when you move?"

"Both," she states simply. She steps to Jacob and slips him a card containing a gift card to Fork's only all you can eat buffet.

"Thank you for the best party favor ever, Jake," she deadpans.

Jacob is clearly confused. He gave out no party favors. "What now?"

Leah smirks. "Refraining from banging your girlfriend while you pretend that we can't hear you. Happy birthday."

She pushes Seth back toward the party when he attempts to follow her home, and she disappears into the dark. Sam and Emily soon leave in the opposite direction, speaking in hushed tones.

The party starts to break up after the fireworks display is over. Quil leaves to patrol with Collin, who plans to do a spirit walk at the beginning of the shift. Jacob pulls Charlie aside before he leaves, thanking him for both the Mustang and the fireworks. Charlie claps him on the shoulder, thanking him for saving Bella's life so many times, and moreover, for making her happy. Then Bella climbs into the cruiser with her father, promising to leave her window unlocked.

Unfortunately, Jacob doesn't make it into Bella's room before she falls asleep. In fact, he doesn't make it there until morning.

He, Rachel, and Billy stay up after the party has dispersed. They clean the house together, and while Rachel and Jacob stand at the sink washing and drying the dishes, Billy tells his children about Sarah's seventeenth birthday, the first time he kissed her. One of her girlfriends had thrown her a party. Sarah had arrived with her then-boyfriend, but she had left with Billy.

After Billy rolls into his bedroom for the night, Rachel makes Jacob a root beer float for a midnight snack and sits with him at the kitchen table.

"Did I do the right thing?" she asks her brother. "He tells me he's happy, and he does look happy, but I'm afraid he would just tell me what I want to hear. You can see in his brain; did I do the right thing?"

Jacob gives her a genuine smile and nods. "He really is happy. I should be honest with you, though. He isn't in love with her."

Rachel looks into her cup of tea. "He's in love with me?"

"Yeah. But he's still happy. He appreciates what you've done for him, Rach. Did you know that last night he told Emily that you set him free?"

"He did?" she looks up from her mug.

Jacob nods. "He realizes now that you've given him choices. Options. He can see multiple paths in front of him. He knows he is capable of falling for someone who isn't you. It doesn't end his feelings for you, but he knows how much you care about him. And I think that makes all the difference."

"So I'm not an awful, selfish person?"

Jacob grins at his sister mischievously. "Well, I wouldn't go that far," he chuckles as she tosses her napkin at him. "How's the boyfriend?"

Now Rachel smiles back. "Good. He's good. We have a date late tomorrow night when I get back."

"He really doesn't mind Paul?" Jacob asks.

Rachel shrugs. "They haven't met since the day Trevor picked me up for the road trip with his cousin. I dunno, he has his life, I have mine. And where our lives overlap, we're pretty happy. He's absurdly busy between his two jobs, to the point most girlfriends would be pissed and feel like they were low priority for him or something. I think he appreciates that I'm not high maintenance like that."

"Mm. I can see the appeal of the space, I guess," Jacob says noncommittally.

Rachel laughs. "No you can't. You would sew yourself to Bella's hip if you could. You're such a lovesick puppy. Get out of here, anyway. I know you're itching to sneak into her bedroom."

"I am," he smiles sheepishly.

"Just try to keep your hands off her while Charlie's there, okay? One of these days, you're totally going to get busted. He'll be back on the night shift soon enough anyway. "

So Jacob hops in the shower quickly, phases, then sets off at a light jog for the Swan residence. He is just at the border of the reservation when he sees a glowing light speeding toward him. It is Collin's spirit form, presumably headed back to his body. Collin spots him moments later.

Jacob discovers that he can hear Collin's voice if he concentrates, something the other wolves have not been able to do when Collin is in spirit form. Collin lowers himself to the ground. He looks for all the world like a ghost; Jacob can see right through him, except for the glowing heart at his center that looks like a tiny star.

_Jake? Jake? Is that you?_

_Yeah, what's up? Everything okay?_

_I think so. But I found something east of here. Near Port Townsend. A vamp, a female one, driving south. I followed it until I couldn't anymore. _

_Couldn't? _Jacob doesn't understand.

_Yeah, couldn't. The farther I get from my body, the harder it is. It feels like I'm getting pulled back. I reach this endpoint when I get far enough, like I might snap away from my body entirely if I don't go back. Don't you feel that way?_

Jacob thinks back carefully. _I've felt a pull back, but I'm not sure distance has anything to do with it. When I went to Italy, for instance, I came back when I wanted to. But the first time I went, when I went to find Bella, I felt yanked back all of a sudden, and I woke up in my body. _

_Not me, _Collin clarifies. _I feel the urge to return to my body the second I leave it. I can suppress the urge, but the farther I go the stronger it is. _

_And that's what happened tonight?_

_Yeah. I followed the vamp until I couldn't anymore. I lost her when she was just reaching the south end of Puget Sound. _

_So tell me about this leech. Doing anything dangerous?_

_Nope, just driving. A black Acura, late model. The vamp had really light blonde hair. And it was the oddest thing. She was wearing sunglasses. _

_At this time of night? What for? _

_Hell if I know, _Collin answers. _Want to see if you can figure out anything more than I can?_

_Yeah,_ Jacob answers. _Where'd you leave your body? You head on back to normal patrol. I'll see if I can find anything more. _

_My body's in my bed. Seemed as safe a place to leave it as any. _

_Okay. If it's alright, I'm going to crash on the floor of your room while I spirit walk. _

_Sure. But just use the bed. My floor's a mess. _

Ten minutes later, rather than being in Bella's bed like he wants, Jacob's body is on his cousin's bed while his spirit ranges far and wide.

_He flings himself far outside his body and races east. He sees the eagle ahead of him and follows it. The speed he attains in this form puts the speed of his wolf to shame. The world whizzes by below him. The eagle draws him directly to the vampire before it whirls away. He recognizes it instantly: the black hole where a soul used to reside. He shouts his thanks to the eagle before it flies away. He examines the car first, noting the license plate. Then he dips down to look at the vampire. It is just as Collin described. A female vampire, ashen pale, white skin. Pale, long blonde hair. And a huge pair of sunglasses despite the fact that it is two in the morning. _

_Jacob follows it, curious, but all it does is drive. It only pauses to refuel its car. Jacob follows until the sun rises. It is an abnormally clear day. So the vampire pulls into a motel, gets a room, then lies down on the bed. It keeps its sunglasses on the entire time. It lies flat on its back, its body unnaturally still. It makes no attempts to do anything at all, and the entire time gives no sign that it knows Jacob is there. _

_An hour after sunrise, Jacob finally turns for home. Staying longer isn't productive. _

He wakes to his Aunt Connie setting a mug of coffee and a plate of biscuits by his head. He quickly updates the pack on what he found, frustrated that he can add little to what Collin discovered, and he makes his way to Bella. Charlie is awake, so he fills him in. He is sure to give Charlie the license plate number. Charlie heads off to the station to see if he can find out anything about the vampire or at least the car. Exhausted, Jacob crawls into bed with Bella just as she is starting to wake. She probably should get up and do something, homework, cleaning, cooking, something. But she cannot bring herself to let him go. So she cradles him in her arms, listens to the even sound of his breathing and strokes his hair, and she watches the sun move across the room.

X-x-x-x-X


	17. Chapter 16

X-x-x-x-X  
March  
X-x-x-x-X

The week after Jacob's birthday, Jacob explores the peninsula carefully for any traces of the vampire's scent. He has no luck until the eagle reappears and leads him to the outskirts of Port Townsend and the remains of the barn where he and his pack found the remains of the teenage girl murdered by the vampires they killed in the fall. He sniffs carefully about the structure and discovers a relatively fresh vampire scent. The regular rainfall in the area dilutes the smell. But enough remains that he is concerned when he realizes that the stench is the same as the one he discovered in the Cullen mansion two days before Christmas. It must be the same vampire that Collin discovered on his spirit walk.

Jacob traces the disintegrating trail west toward Port Angeles, and he is dismayed to realize that the vampire clearly scoured the entire town. He tries to track the scent back toward Forks, but he finds nothing west of the city limits of Port Angeles.

Charlie tries to determine the identity of the vampire. The car turns out to be a rental. With a forged subpoena produced by Jasper, now living with the rest of his family in New Hampshire where Carlisle has taken a position in a local Emergency Room, he is able to obtain the paperwork that the vampire signed. The name on the forms and on the driver's license turns out to be a fake, however, the rather uninspired alias of Jane Smith. Charlie faxes a copy of the license to Carlisle to see if he recognizes the vampire, but the printout gets shuffled into a pile of other papers and discarded before the doctor sees it, and neither Charlie nor Carlisle realize the mistake is made. Instead, they discuss at length that after the departure of Marcus from the Volturi triumvirate, plus the continuing absence of Jane, Felix, and Chelsea, the vampire world itself is in a state of upheaval. A power struggle is brewing, and Carlisle is worried about who will emerge the victor. Additionally, Carlisle is sad to confirm that the Olympic Peninsula has become a breeding ground of stories about mythical forces and disappearing vampires. There are wild tales about a shaman, a ghost, an ancient Native chief, and deadly beasts, although oddly enough, none that he has heard about giant, deadly wolves.

Jacob keeps a close eye out for the return of the vampire, but as time passes, he begins to wonder if it mattered at all. After all, the vampire stopped to do nothing dangerous while on the Olympic Peninsula so far as they can tell. If the pack really wanted to go looking for trouble, they would only have to go to Seattle. But the elders forbid it unanimously, not willing to risk their children in battles so far from home.

In January, Jacob elevates avoidance of Jasmine to the level of a fine art. But he finds this untenable in the small school building, and he eventually realizes that he needs to come to a better middle ground, particularly after he nearly gets suspended for repeatedly eating his lunch in rooms that don't allow food, a problem the principal takes seriously due to the mice that inhabit the old structure. Jacob reluctantly returns to the lunchroom. But each day, he dawdles until Jasmine chooses her seat at their table before strategically placing himself as far from her as he can get. In February, it makes it easier that Embry, having neglected to celebrate Valentine's Day properly, is "off-again" with Julie. So Jacob relaxes for several weeks thereafter despite Quil's incessant teasing that Jacob is scared of a girl. By March, the daily exposure has rendered him more comfortable in general. He no longer worries about phasing uncontrollably, and his low grade arousal during the day has faded and frankly is not much different than it was before she arrived. It might actually have gotten worse, but not due to Jasmine. He credits Bella with the latter, as she has been more than happy to allow him to work out his body's needs with hers. Due to the connection between their bodies, she responds to his desires with a reflected need of her own. So he spends each day counting down the minutes until he can bury himself in Bella's sweet body again.

At this point, Jacob is much more concerned about being caught by one of their fathers than he is about Jasmine Hudson. But he and Bella have worked out a schedule. Charlie's day shifts end a solid two hours after Bella gets home from Port Angeles, his evening shifts leave him blissfully out of the house until midnight, and his night shifts are self explanatory. It gets to the point that the only things that slow Jacob down are his patrol shifts and the limits of Bella's body. He gets the hint one afternoon when Leah tosses him an ice pack as she leaves Bella's house, telling him that his girlfriend should put it between her legs when they're done.

After two months of regular exposure to Jasmine, Jacob even becomes comfortable enough to start making idle small talk with her during their Pacific Tribal History class. At first he walks a fine line between seeming politely disinterested and acting like, as Quil calls it, "a raging asshole". But over time, he starts to lower his guard, and he finds with a pang of guilt that she really is a nice, friendly girl that he has ostracized since her arrival. She doesn't seem to hold it against him, though, although she clearly remembers his unspoken rule that she shouldn't try to touch him.

Her crush on him, hidden well during his weeks of silence, rises quickly to the surface again.

Jacob finally figures out the signs. The way she glances at him before hiding behind her hair. The way she blatantly stares when he shouldn't be able to see her. But he can feel her eyes boring into the back of his skull. The way she licks her lips nervously before she talks to him. The way she blushes whenever he talks to her, no matter how insipid his conversation. The way she nervously twirls her hair in her fingers whenever he is around. The increase in the speed of her heart whenever she spots him. Furthermore, he is shocked when he begins to pay attention to the other girls around him and realizes that not only does Jasmine harbor a crush, but at least half a dozen other girls in his class, and a few of the seniors as well.

When did this happen?

He had seen it, of course, the looks he would get while he and his brothers played shirtless on the beach over the summer. But he was too wrapped up with his own then-unrequited love for Bella to really notice. After that he was too busy trying to keep her alive to pay them any mind, and afterward, too wrapped up in Bella herself.

But once he knows the signs to look for, he starts examining everyone with a more critical eye. His heightened wolf senses allow him to learn much more than he otherwise would. Over the course of a week, he figures out who has crushes on him, Embry, and Quil. Between Jasmine, a few of the other girls in school, at least one of the boys, and most mortifying of all, a couple teachers, Jacob is tempted to beg Billy to let him drop out of school.

The day he discusses this with Bella is the day they finally get caught. He tells Bella one afternoon while they sit on her living room floor doing homework together. She just smiles and kisses him on the cheek, telling him that he had better get used to the sidelong glances until he admits, "Now I understand why I made you so uncomfortable last year Bells. It's so awkward. I can't believe you put up with me. I was about as subtle as a sledgehammer."

She puts down her book and runs her fingers through his hair. "That's different, Jake. I was supposed to be with you all along. I was attracted right back, even though I wouldn't admit it. I was in love with you before I knew it myself, and you knew that."

He smiles at her and kisses her gently on the lips. "Thanks, honey. I almost wish I'd wolfed out a little sooner-soon enough that maybe you'd have noticed me before you got sucked in by Cullen."

"You didn't need to wolf out, Jake. That's not why I noticed you. I noticed you because you made me so happy."

He rolls his eyes. "Right. So when I was six feet tall but only 135 pounds, that was sexy enough for you, huh?"

"You make it sound like I only want you for your body," she whines. "You make me sound so superficial."

He flexes his substantial bicep and winks at her. "So this means nothing to you, huh?"

She giggles and smacks him in the same bicep. "You dork, put that away."

"So you don't like the gun show, Bells?" He waggles his eyebrows and lifts up his shirt to expose his eight pack. "How about these? Does this do something for you?"

Bella laughs harder. "You're so conceited. You'd have sex with yourself if you could," she teases.

Then Jacob drops his shirt and starts unbuttoning his fly. "Who says I can't have sex with myself, Bells? Of course I can. Let me show you."

Bella is aroused and hysterical all at once. "Crap, Jake. Our dads will be here in ten minutes."

"That's plenty of time, honey." He feigns a thoughtful expression as he steps out of his pants. He looks her in the eye, clad only in his shirt and boxer briefs. He preferred to go without underwear altogether but had made the concession for Bella when he realized how much she liked the look of these on him. "You do know what I mean, right? I don't need you for this. But it's fine if you want to watch." He points at his crotch with a leering grin. She snorts, tries to suppress her laughter, and fails.

"Bells? Honey? I want to make sure you understand. It's called jacking off. Spanking the monkey. Choking the chicken. Polishing the skin flute. Milking the anaconda. Tickling your Elmo. Making baby Jesus cry." Bella shakes with laughter and clutches at her sides.

But then, Jacob freezes. Suddenly he is illuminated brightly. Bella turns and sees Charlie's cruiser pulling up the drive. His headlights shine through the open curtains directly at Jacob, pantless, pointing at his own crotch with both forefingers, eyes wide and mouth open, frozen in place.

So they aren't caught in flagrante delicto. But this is almost as bad. Jacob's only saving grace, the only thing that saves him from Charlie's gun, already unclipped at his hip, is Bella. She is fully clothed and laughing like a hyena when Charlie marches in, hands on his hips, eyes blazing with anger, as Jacob stumbles around the room trying to put his pants back on. Before Charlie can demand to know what is going on, Jacob trips on the coffee table, one leg still out of his pants, yelling, "It was just a joke! Nothing's going on, I swear!" Bella falls against the couch, weeping with laughter. From outside, they hear Billy yelling to be assisted inside before all the night's entertainment is over. Jacob sprints out the door when he sees Charlie reaching for his gun.

Charlie closes the fastening on his holster when Jacob makes it outside and calls out, "Well, there's probably no punishment worse than having a girl laugh at your half naked body, short of me shooting off your testicles, son. Clothes stay on in this house, you hear?"

Jacob sheepishly helps Billy inside, and he then suffers through the most awkward dinner of his life. When they get home, he gets yet another lecture on the importance of not impregnating Bella Swan. It ends with Billy mentioning, "And no sneaking out of the house tonight, son. If you think you're pulling one over on your old man, you're mistaken. There's no real punishment I can inflict on you at this point, but I can tell Charlie Swan that you've been climbing into his daughter's bedroom at night, and if that's not enough, I can tell you a true story to keep that libido under control. You see, I walked in on your grandparents once. To make matters worse, I wasn't a little kid who didn't know what was happening. I was twenty nine. Which put your grandparents both in their sixties."

"Ah! Shut up! Enough, I get it!" Jacob cries.

"I'm not so sure you do, son. It was awful. They weren't under the sheets or anything. They weren't even in bed."

Jacob plugs his ears and yells, "Lalalalalala!" until Billy rolls away laughing. It is enough to kill Jacob's sex drive for the next twenty four hours. But it doesn't last longer than that.

Sadly, by the next day the story has grown to mythic proportions. A freshman that Jacob doesn't even know stops him in the hallway and says, "Jake, did the doctors clear you to come back already? You should be home in bed."

Perplexed at the remark, he almost asks what the boy means when he hears whispers from a group of senior girls huddled at the end of the hallway. "Did you hear? Jacob got arrested last night for public indecency outside the Chief of Police's house. But he's here today. I can't believe he must have gotten off with a stern warning."

And still another, "I heard he was streaking through downtown Forks on a dare."

Jacob ducks into his homeroom class, but Embry and Quil just greet him with more laughter. "So Chief Swan let you live, huh?"

"What the hell?" he asks. "How does everyone know, and what do they think happened?" He hasn't phased in since the incident, so his brothers couldn't have seen it in his mind. But he realizes with chagrin that a neighbor must have spotted him running out the front door while buttoning his fly as Charlie yelled at him.

Quil explains, "I've heard a bunch of different rumors. That Chief Swan caught you going at it with Bella and shot you."

Embry breaks in, "In the nuts or in the ass, depending on whom you ask. There's another one that you ran out of her house naked and he fired but missed."

"I just heard someone say I got arrested, and somebody else thinks I was streaking through Forks."

"Oh," Embry laughs, "I hadn't heard that one yet. So what actually happened?"

Jacob's ears turn red. "We were doing homework in her living room and our dads found me with my pants off. I still had my shirt and underwear on. We weren't doing anything. It was just a joke."

"A joke? And since when do you wear underwear?" Quil snorts. "I don't believe you for a second."

Embry shakes his head. "You're a total horndog around Bella. No way were your pants off as a joke."

"It's true!" Jacob insists.

"If it's true," Quil squints at him, "tell us the joke."

Jacob pauses with his mouth open. The joke was stupid, and it's just as well everyone thinks he got caught doing the deed with his girlfriend. "Never mind. We were just having sex."

Now Embry narrows his eyes as well. "Nuh uh. If Chief Swan actually caught you going at it in the living room, he really would have shot you. What were you doing?"

"Nothing. Shut up," Jacob folds his arms over his chest and tries to shrink down in his too-small chair behind his too-small desk.

Embry and Quil howl with laughter. "You're an idiot, whatever you were doing," Embry chuckles. "And you deserve to get shot in the ass after subjecting us all to your moaning and groaning at both of those New Year's parties."

Quil shudders. "Not to mention Sam's kitchen table. I can't eat there anymore, so it's all your fault I haven't had any of Emily's cooking in months."

Embry agrees. "And I can't look Bella in the eye anymore. Hell, I can't look you in the eye, you perv."

Quil leans in close with a glint in his eye. "Hey, did that crazy ex of hers teach her any tricks?"

Jacob growls low in his throat almost inaudibly. Not at his friends' teasing, of course, but they are edging toward disparaging Bella. "Hey, he never touched her. I'm the only one who ever has, and I'm the only one who ever will. Watch what you say about her," he says in a warning tone.

Embry throws his hands up in a placating gesture. "Hey man, no disrespect. We love Bella, you know that."

Quil can't help but snicker, "But we don't love her as much as you do!" The double entendre is obvious.

Jacob scowls and looks off in the other direction. That is how he notices three other classmates in close hearing range gaping at him blatantly. Jasmine is included amongst them. But unlike the other boys who were listening in, who look somewhat in awe of Jacob, if anything, Jasmine looks both mortified and hurt. And for the first time, he feels bad. He knows what it's like to harbor an unrequited crush. It was hard enough to have Bella reject him for Edward Cullen. At least she was polite enough not to flaunt her physical relationship in front of him, tame though it was. He doesn't think that Jasmine's feelings for him could possibly come close to the abiding love he has always felt for Bella, of course, but that's no excuse for basically waving his girlfriend in front of her face.

Just as Quil starts to open his mouth to make another obnoxious comment, Jacob stops him. "Hey guys, shut up. I mean it." He gestures subtly toward Jasmine with his head. "You're making a scene."

Embry drops his voice and sounds serious. "Sure, man, sure. But it's just as well that she knows she's got no shot with you."

Jacob shrugs. "I think she knows that already, don't you?"

Thankfully, the bell rings, and Jacob escapes Jasmine's sad gaze until pre-calculus. He makes a special effort to give her a smile when he sits next to her in Pacific Tribal History. He is relieved when he gets a warm, genuine smile in return. He feels guilty enough to make polite conversation with her, asking her how she is settling in, how her parents are doing in Tokyo, and whether Brady is driving her crazy. She looks inordinately pleased that he is speaking to her, and he feels even more guilty for shunning her so blatantly. Who is he to judge her anyway? She hasn't made a single overt gesture toward him. She only happened to make casual contact with him a couple times, and it isn't her fault his wolf reacts with aggression. Yes, she has a crush, but she hasn't done a single thing about it other than watch him from afar.

Of course, somehow the decision to be friendly today manages to backfire on him. A few minutes into class, the teacher announces a new assignment to be done in pairs. She wants them to take pivotal events in the tribe's history or legend and contrast them with the same histories as told by the other surrounding tribes in the Pacific Northwest. Jasmine immediately asks him to be her partner, and while he stutters and tries to think of an excuse to refuse, everyone else in the room pairs up, and then he has no choice.

That afternoon, Bella comes to his house in the evening after dinner. They had both decided that Charlie and Jacob could probably use some time apart. It means he is able to finish his homework before she arrives, as is she. So they sprint through the cold spring rain into his garage. Jacob, Quil, Embry, Seth, and Leah had taken a recent uncharacteristically clear weekend to expand the structure's size to fit both the Mustang and Jacob's other alternating projects, utilizing their superhuman strength and speed to complete the project in just three days.

She pulls the space heater next to the loveseat while he bends over his Mustang's engine. He is happy to see that it is in surprisingly good condition. It really only needs a tune up, although the transmission and suspension are a different story.

"So I heard from Rose today," Bella begins. She brushes rainwater off her clothes and relaxes into the couch cushions, shoving her stockinged feet just an inch from the space heater and wiggling them luxuriously.

"Oh yeah? What's she up to?"

"Coming back. For the long haul. Med school in Seattle. And she decided to get a PhD, too, just in case she figures out she really isn't safe to be around people that much, you know? That way she could teach or do research or something."

"Geez. How long is that going to take?"

"Years. But time she's got plenty of," Bella muses.

"At least she isn't going to high school again. Seriously, Bells. That would be some form of torture."

Bella shudders. "I can't believe I came so close to doing that. I mean, I didn't exactly like high school."

"You know, I really don't get why more of them don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Get jobs. I mean, I know they don't need to, but don't they get bored?" Jacob, of course, is constantly doing something. Between patrol, school, homework, taking odd jobs on other people's cars, working on his Mustang, helping Billy around the house, and seeing Bella, he seems to pack at least thirty hours worth of activity into every twenty four hour period. He continues, "I mean, Edward went to med school too, right? And this isn't Rosalie's first time."

"Right."

"So why didn't they ever do anything with it? I mean, if they could stand to be around blood enough to be around people during school, what was the difference doing it as a job? Or just be a psychiatrist or something. Can't be too much blood there, right?"

"I don't know," Bella admits. Now that she has some semblance of objectivity on the Cullens' lifestyle, she really has no idea how they fill their hours, save Carlisle. Yes, Rosalie likes to work on cars as much as Jacob does, but maintenance on their pristine fleet of vehicles can't take up that much time. Yes, Alice likes to shop, but all the stores close in the middle of the night. Yes, Emmett likes to play video games, but... okay, teenage boys can play them until their eyes are about to fall out of their sockets, and Emmett's eyes never hurt, so he can probably play video games from sundown to sunup. Esme cooks food that no one eats, and Jasper, well, she has no idea what Jasper does. Edward played the piano and... watched her sleep. She shudders. How creepy, in retrospect. That leaves hunting, which they don't do every day, and sex, which she'd rather not think about. Although comparing the Cullens' active love lives to hers and Jacob's is probably the pot calling the kettle black. She shakes herself out of her disturbing train of thought. "Anyway, Rosalie is going to be here for at least a few years, with Emmett, of course. They're going to come look for an apartment or a house or something."

"Cool, when? Are you guys going to get together? She's welcome here, you know that."

"Yeah, about that," Bella leans forward and bites her lip nervously. "They offered to take me out to see Edward's house in Chicago."

Jacob freezes. "I guess you need to figure out what to do with the place, huh?" he asks evenly.

Bella lets out a relieved puff of air. "Yeah. I do. The lawyer has been bugging me about it. There's been a caretaker there for years looking after the place, but no one lives there. It's fully furnished, apparently, and they keep the electricity and heat and stuff on, but it sounds like it's kind of just wasting space."

Jacob has the sudden fear that Bella will want to move to Chicago and live in the house, perhaps transfer into one of Chicago's many universities. They haven't talked about it recently, but with the mysterious vampire threats still hanging on the edges of their consciousness and his senior year of high school still to complete, not to mention his Alpha duties, he has no idea when and if he might manage to leave La Push. He hates the thought that he is going to trap Bella in Forks for the rest of her life, but he thinks his heart would break if she were to leave.

But she keeps talking, and as she does so, his fears ease. "I can't figure out if we should sell it, or maybe donate it? Who could I give a house to?"

Jacob lets out a relieved sigh of his own. Good. So she doesn't plan to move in. He isn't sure why he thought she would want to other than the fact that he doesn't think she really wants to live in Forks forever. "No clue, Bells. Dr. Cullen can probably help you out there."

"Yeah. Maybe I could go out there for spring break. Alice should be free too, it could be fun."

"Next week?" he asks, deciding he already misses her. But he can't think of a single good reason to ask her to stay. He hasn't told her about his upcoming project with Jasmine that will inevitably force them together much more often than he is comfortable with. But he can handle it, right? He doesn't need to hold his tiny girlfriend between himself and the other girl like some sort of ridiculous human shield. "Sure, sure."

But she picks up on his anxiety anyway. "How are things with Jasmine, Jake?"

Jacob puts down his wrench and wipes his hand on a rag. "Uh, okay I guess. We got stuck together doing a school project." He doesn't miss the way her face falls at his words. "I think it'll be okay. I mean, she hasn't done a single thing since she got here that looks threatening in the least."

"How's your wolf around her?" Bella asks with trepidation. She is tempted not to go to Chicago so that Jacob won't be left alone with Jasmine. Jacob's involuntary reactions to the girl still make her very uncomfortable. Then she chides herself for being a jealous, petty, possessive girlfriend. After all, she trusts Jacob implicitly.

"He still doesn't like her," Jacob admits, "but I'm around her so much now, I think he's gotten acclimated. I don't feel like I have to hold myself back from attacking her in school. I've actually been able to pay attention in class lately."

Bella looks at her feet and furrows her brow. She hates how she sounds but can't help but ask, "And the other stuff? When she touches you?"

Jacob answers immediately. "Oh. I don't let her touch me at all. I mean, what would I do, bolt out of school, sprint to Port Angeles, and yank you into a broom closet?" She looks up to see him grinning and giggles at his joke. "Nah. She's figured out not to try, I think. She knows I'm yours. Hell. The entire student body and most of the teachers know I'm yours. Plus everything just feels lower key. It's been weeks since I had that reaction to her. Maybe I'm over-sexed or something. If there is such a thing."

From the doorway, a sardonic feminine voice chimes in, "Shit, you guys have sex so often, I'm sure you're shooting blanks most of the time. There's probably only like, five or ten mini-Jake's trying to impregnate Bella every time. I'm frankly surprised I didn't walk into the naked tango out here."

"Hey, Leah," Jacob laughs as Bella blushes bright red.

Leah appears in the entrance, soaked from head to toe, and laughs at the red color of Bella's cheeks. "You'd think by now she'd have gotten used to the sex jokes. I mean, the little nympho got used to the kinky sex fast enough. How come she can't handle talking about it?"

"That can't be why you're here, Leah," Bella interrupts.

"Nah. I wanted to run my spring break plans by Jake. I'm going to Seattle on Friday night and staying with your sister. I'll be back in time to take Sam's day shifts on Wednesday and Thursday, and my usual Friday. Paul's going to drive with me, then he'll run back Sunday night in time for school the next day."

"Too bad the vacations don't line up," Bella sighs. "I'd love for you to come to Chicago with me," she tells Jake.

"Me too. Have fun, Leah."

"I will, believe me. Hey, I wanted to ask you, what are the other guys' plans for after graduation?"

"You mean Paul and Jared? Well, Jared's not itching to get out of here. As far as he's concerned, he and Kim can move in together and he's happy patrolling full time. The council can pay him now, thanks to Bells here, so he doesn't need to go looking for other work. The wolf life suits him, you know? And Kim is going to enroll at Peninsula, still trying to figure out what she wants to do."

Leah wonders at Jacob's new attitude toward Edward Cullen's money. As far as she can tell, he has made no plans to touch a cent of it himself, but it is pretty difficult to deny that it will make Jared's life much easier. Instead of trying to juggle a full time job to support himself and fit patrolling around it, he can just handle what is already easily a single full time job.

"As for Paul, someday he'd like to stop phasing, but he's nowhere near ready. He wants to take some classes at Peninsula too. Not sure if he's going to do full time or part time; it's up to him. He'll probably look for his own place. Living with dad kind of cramps his style. And he'll use Cullen's money to pay for tuition and rent or buy a place if he feels like it."

"Hey, good for him," Leah nods. She can't figure out how she feels about the "bloodsucker's treasure hoard", as Quil so delicately put it. Her mother has offered to help her with her school expenses, but she knows that it will come out of her mother's retirement fund.

"Leah, that money's ready for you too," Bella adds.

Leah smiles slyly and looks at the ground. "I guess I do have something to spend it on now." She pulls a folded piece of paper out of her paper and holds it out.

"Is that what I think it is?" Bella jumps to her feet.

Leah nods. "Yep. Acceptance letter into UDub. I can start this fall."

Jacob whoops in excitement and runs to Leah, reaching her before Bella does. He gives her a huge bear hug and spins her around. "Fucking awesome!" he yells.

Leah laughs with them as Jacob sets her back on her feet. "So, I take it that you approve, oh mighty Alpha?" She pauses. "I mean, assuming there's no insane crisis, I can go?"

"Of course you can go!" Jacob yells. "You absolutely have to go! No matter what. I will fucking Alpha order you to go to college if I have to!" He stops and narrows his eyes at her. "Wait. How come you're taking Sam's shifts next week?" he wonders, perplexed.

She shrugs. "Emily asked. They don't get much time off together. If she wants to get someone else to pick up his shifts, it's me or no one."

Bella marvels at Leah's even tone. If Jacob dumped her for Jamine, and then Jasmine asked her to free up Jacob's schedule for the two of them could spend more time together, Bella wouldn't be able to be civil, let alone help. "Seriously?" she asks.

Now Leah lets her irritation show. "Those two need to get their act together. They're driving me nuts. If they can go away somewhere and talk and hash out all their shit, that's good with me. Unfortunately, what will actually happen is that Emily will cry, Sam will comfort her, and they will make absolutely zero progress. I know this, but they don't get it yet, and I guess I get to cover his shift while he finds out the hard way."

Leah has avoided Sam religiously since Jacob's birthday party. He has tried to see her, going so far as to knock on her door when he knows she is home, but she has resorted to having Seth send him away.

A part of her wants to let him in, of course. Sam is her first love. So far, her only love. Going to school without him is, frankly, painful. She always thought that the person hugging her and spinning her in circles at this moment would be Sam, not Jacob. She thought she would go apartment hunting with him, not Rachel. What is worse, he was just as excited about the prospect as she, if not more, until the moment he looked into Emily's eyes.

She saw him from her bedroom window when Seth turned him away. He looked positively agonized as he found her looking down at him from above. She saw anger on his face, regret, desperation, even desire. What she wasn't certain of was whether she saw actual love. His eyes were filled with passion, once again directed at her, but this time mixed with conflicted guilt over Emily and a hefty dose of self loathing. Leah wondered what Emily was doing that allowed Sam to come to her home. Sam stared back at her for the longest moment of her life, pain in his gaze. She didn't flinch, she barely even blinked. Part of her wanted to fling open her window, let him scale the tree, and admit him into her room. But she knew that down that road lay only madness. After all, Emily awaited him in their shared home, wearing his ring, ready to claim his name as she has already claimed Sam himself. Even if Leah allowed him to enter, even if he pushed her down onto her bed and joined his body with hers, even if he declared his everlasting love to her, she saw in his eyes that he would do all these things but still return to Emily's arms the second she asked. No. Not even that. He wouldn't even wait for his imprint to ask. He would abandon Leah the very second Emily wanted him to return. So she simply shook her head. Defeated, he retreated.

Leah touched her lips after he turned to walk away. Their kiss at Jacob's birthday party, their only kiss since he ended their engagement, lingered on her lips for days, the echo of his love for her reverberating in her soul. He hasn't said he loves her, although he has alluded to it. He has begged her to stay. But he hasn't given her a single reason that she should. The only thing she knew was that he did not want to give her up. But he himself didn't know why, nor what he would do with her should she stay.

So she refused to see Sam. But she was unable to turn away Emily. After all, Emily was her oldest friend. And amongst the three of them, Emily wields nearly all the power.

And Leah finally understood why Sam was able to come looking for her. Because Emily now, finally, a year too late, realized just what she had done.

A week prior, Leah returned from dropping Bella off at home expecting an empty, peaceful house. Instead she found Emily on the front step, shivering in the steady winter rain. She sighed and unlocked the door, gesturing Emily inside. She retrieved towels, dry clothing, and a cup of Emily's favorite tea before falling heavily into a kitchen chair.

Emily opened quietly, "I'm so sorry."

Leah tilted her head and bit back a dozen obnoxious retorts. "I know."

Emily stared at the table. "No. I get it now. I didn't before. And I'm truly sorry, Leah."

Emily wasn't looking at her, so Leah gave in to the urge to roll her eyes. "I know you are," she repeated.

"I talked to Paul."

"I know that too, and you don't have to explain. I forgave you both the day I phased, remember? We don't have to do this again." _I don't want to do this again._

Emily finally looked up with pleading eyes. "But I do. I need to get this off my chest. I need to talk to you."

Leah sighed. This was the crux of the matter. Leah needed to move on, but Emily wasn't ready. Leah needed not to be in the middle of this conversation, to set aside her painful past, her lost future, her ruined friendship, her broken girlhood bonds. To go find something better, or at least something else. Leah already knew what Emily had just figured out, and she had no interest in rehashing it again. But as sweet as Emily was, as kind as she was, as well intentioned as she may have been, Emily simply needs. Emily's needs overrule Leah's needs. Thus it has always been, and thus it will be. As long as Leah stays.

"He told me, the elders told me, that he would do what I wanted. Be what I needed. And when I turned him away, when I told him to go back to you, but he didn't, I misunderstood what that meant. I thought there were two choices. Accept him fully as a partner and lover, or he would be miserable forever."

"I know."

Emily's voice dropped to a whisper as tears started to stream down her face."And I didn't realize until later, much later, that the reason he didn't go back to you was because I didn't, deep down, actually want him to. I wanted him to be mine. I'm so sorry, Leah," she rushed on. "My ex was such an ass. And you always talked about Sam like he was so damn wonderful. The opposite of what I had, and everything I wanted. I never told you this, but I had such a big crush on him. But I swear, I never intended to take him from you. I thought it was just a harmless fantasy. I painted this picture of perfection in my mind based on all the amazing things you said, and I wanted it. I never thought it would amount to anything. I mean, before the imprint he didn't notice me at all. And I didn't want him to, not in any real way. He was unattainable and that was fine. But then he really looked at me, and no one, no one had ever looked at me that way."

"I know." Leah knew exactly how exhilarating it was when Sam focused his searing gaze, his undivided attention, his love. Because it was once aimed at her.

Emily sobbed, desperately seeking absolution. "I told him to go to Hell. You remember, right? I told him to go back to you. You know I did."

"I know."

"I just didn't realize that I had to say it _and_ I had to mean it. It never occurred to me that that could possibly matter. So when he wouldn't go away, and he was showering me with the kind of attention I had always wanted, I thought it was a sign. A confirmation that we were meant to be, just like he said. Or like I wanted to hear. I thought that he could only ever be fulfilled if I took him as a lover. As a husband. It never once occurred to me that I could love him as a friend. Leah, if I had known," she choked.

"I know." She didn't bother saying the other thing she knew, that even had Emily realized she could have fulfilled Sam's needs by loving him as a sister, as a friend, Emily herself wanted more. Needed more. Emily needed Sam more than she needed Leah, needed Sam to be hers more than she needed Sam himself to be truly happy or free, more than she needed her best friend to be happy. So no matter what, Leah was doomed to come in second place. To be set aside.

So the fact that Emily understood that Rachel has not denied Paul, has not closed forever the only door leading to his happiness, but rather opened an infinite number of doors for him leading to an infinite number of possibilities, any number of which can simply lead to a different sort of happiness, this knowledge was still utterly useless. Because Emily needed Sam in a way that Rachel did not need Paul. Rachel needed Paul to be free and needed him to be happy. Emily just needed Sam.

Emily didn't even try to wipe the tears from her face. Didn't bother to hold back her sobs. "And if this hadn't happened..." She pointed to her scars. "Leah, who else is ever going to love me? Who else is ever going to want me, if not him?"

Leah sighed. This she also knew about Emily. That deep down, underneath the sweetness and warmth and goodness and light, Emily was always rather vain, a trait that stemmed from the fact that she was intensely insecure. She always had been. It made her overly reliant on her pretty face. And without the pretty face, she had no idea how to attract a man's attention. Worse yet, she thought she needed a man's attention to give her worth. Which led her back to needing Sam.

Emily's broken, hitching monologue resumed. "After the accident, he wanted me to tell him to kill himself. What was I supposed to do? Because then he begged me to give him a chance. Said he couldn't survive without my love. I thought he meant romantic love. I didn't know he could survive with any other kind."

Leah was more than ready for this conversation to be over. Emily had not told her one thing that she didn't already know. She, in fact, understood the situation much better than Emily did. She understood that the reason Sam had been able to realize his feelings for Leah again was due to Emily's guilt and second guessing her own decisions. It didn't make Sam's feelings any less real, which only broke her heart further. Leah realized better than anyone that Sam's love for her was, and still is, more pure, more genuine, and more true than anything he feels for Emily. But as long as Emily needs him as she does, Sam will never be free.

Leah knew that she could ask for him back. Emily felt guilty enough that she would make an effort to let Sam return to her. But Leah also knew that Emily was not as strong as Rachel and certainly not as strong as Leah herself. This Emily was not capable of letting him go.

And moreover, Leah was not interested in breaking Emily's heart the way Emily broke hers.

Emily looked back up to meet her eyes again, sensing that Leah was not going to ask that Sam be returned to her. "If I had known, if I had understood how this really worked, I would have done everything differently." Leah nodded despite the fact that she knew that Emily was never capable of anything else. "But now, Leah, now I don't know how to stop loving him the way I do. I'm in too deep."

"I know."

"Do you?"

Leah nods.

"Do you forgive me?" Emily's eyes begged.

"I already did, remember?" She repeats this despite the fact that she is getting awfully sick of it. This is the closest she will come to doing so again. How has she ended up comforting Emily for the heartbreak Emily has caused her?

Emily stood, pulled Leah to her feet, and yanked her upward into a tight embrace. "Thank you. I promise. I'm going to try. I know he still loves you. I'm going to try."

Leah sighed. Emily's promise was well intended but hollow. And she was so tired of false hope. "Don't. Just don't. You'll just tear him in half. Don't do that to him."

Emily released her and looked at her with a newfound conviction. "No. I'm going to try."

Leah was unable to convince her otherwise, particularly since she couldn't very well explain to Emily that she believed that Emily simply wasn't capable of what she intended. Not to mention that without Emily's true conviction to let Sam go, she also didn't believe Sam to be capable of overriding the feelings of his imprint. She has watched Jacob's commitment to Bella, for instance, and no longer doubted for a second that Jacob was stronger than his wolf, could subdue his wolf's desires in favor of his own. She had no such faith that Sam Uley could do the same.

So Leah isn't exactly certain what Emily plans for her time with Sam next week. She probably intends to tell Sam that she wants him to be happy the way Rachel has made Paul happy. And she won't be lying, not exactly. But Leah knows Emily. She knows that Emily will say the words, will probably even mean the words. But in her heart of hearts, Emily wants Sam to tell her that only she can make him truly happy. And so he will, even if only his wolf truly believes that. Even if the man longs for Leah.

Either way, Leah has no plans to stick around any longer waiting for Sam Uley to come running back to her. She has waited long enough, and she finally sees light at the end of her long, dark tunnel.

She turns back to Bella and Jacob with a shrug. "It's okay. I have four solid days in Seattle away from all that drama, and I think I'll spend it apartment hunting. When I come home and take Sam's shifts, I really don't mind running patrol when I'm doing it by myself. Hell, Jake, feel free to put me back on more evening or weekend rotations if you're going to pair me with you or Seth. At least until I move."

Jacob shakes his head. "No, that'll only make it harder for you to stop phasing when you move. Are you going to go as soon as school's out or wait until the end of the summer?"

"That depends on what you need me for. I'm so damn excited to get to go in the fall, it's really no burden to help out for a few extra months."

"Nah, we'll be fine. Everyone's off for summer break, Paul and Jared will be completely done with school. Go whenever you want."

She grins. "Then I'll probably go as soon as the quarter is over. I'm sure I won't be able to stop phasing entirely, but I figure I can go out of town and go into the woods and wolf out there. I'll go as long as I can in between, but I don't see a need to torture myself about it. Plus I can run home pretty fast if you need me to."

"We'll try not to need you," Jacob smiles. Bella gives her a big hug and she starts to head home through the rain. Within a minute she is dripping again.

But halfway between Jacob's home and hers, she hears familiar footsteps approaching. He apparently overheard their entire conversation. "Jacob may not need you, but I do," Sam says softly from behind her.

Leah stops in her tracks. She has no idea what to say, so she just asks, "What on earth for?"

"I miss you." His voice is strangled. He approaches her quietly. She hasn't turned to face him and holds herself rigidly still.

"I miss you too, so what?"

"It was supposed to be you and me going off together, Lee Lee," he breathes. She can feel the heat of his body along her back, although he isn't touching her at all.

"I know," she sighs. She doesn't have the energy for another one of these conversations. First Emily, now Sam. Again. Telling her all kinds of things she figured out ages ago, things the imprinted couple only just now has the sense to see. Leah has been in his brain, although not for months. She knew he remembered these things, but they were so deeply buried beneath his new feelings for Emily that he himself didn't realize they were there.

He reaches out his burning hand to turn her to face him, but she refuses to budge. She doesn't want to look into his eyes again. Doesn't want to see the internal conflict in his agonized gaze. All it does is beat her, batter her, leave her for dead. Raises her hopes before dashing them to the ground. "I'm so sorry I didn't realize all of this sooner," he whispers. "I don't understand why now of all times. I wish I had figured it out ages ago."

Leah doesn't want to talk to him, doesn't want to hash this out over and over again with him, with Emily, with herself. But once upon a time, in addition to being the living embodiment of his hopes and his dreams, Leah was his best friend. She doesn't owe him anything now, but being his friend always came so naturally. She hasn't forgotten how. "I know why. You didn't have to face losing me before. You didn't have to give me up when I was still here pining away for you. I was still yours even though you weren't mine anymore. So the loss I've been suffering for the past year is happening for you now. But mostly it isn't about me, and it isn't even about you."

"It's about her, isn't it?" Since she won't turn to him, he steps to face her. But she keeps her eyes firmly turned to the ground. So she looks at his feet, and she doesn't see how his eyes rake up and down her lovely form, her wet clothes clinging to every curve.

"Everything's about her now."

"No, not everything, Lee Lee," his voice cracks. He wants to say more, but there is a vice around his windpipe.

Leah shrugs. She knows now that when he spirit walks, when he leaves his wolf behind in his body, he is her Sam again. It only breaks her heart all over again. Only breaks his. "Everything you're capable of actually doing. Unless you're planning on separating yourself permanently from your body, you're bound to her. I get that. I've understood it since the day I phased."

"But Paul is bound to Rachel, and he's still with Elle," he argues, placing his hands on her shoulders, gripping her tightly so she can't drift away.

Leah nods, but she still doesn't look up. Her eyes start to burn, but she refuses to cry. "That's why you're here. Because Emily has looked at Paul and Rachel and started to wonder. That's the only reason you're here. You're here because of her, not because of me."

Hope surges through him. "Then it's possible. She knows it, I know it, and you know it." His voice shakes. "I want you back Lee Lee. Come back to me."

Leah finally looks up, and the love and the agony he sees in her eyes shake him to his core. Even his wolf cannot remain unaffected. But she shakes her head in amazement. "It's too late, Sam. What makes you think I'm willing to break Emily's heart the way she broke mine? She loves you. I know what it's like to love you, and I know what it's like to lose you. What makes you think I would do that to her?" Because as angry as she is with Emily, as betrayed as she feels, and as much as she knows that she will always love Sam Uley, she also knows herself, and she knows Emily. Only one of them is strong enough to make a life for herself without him.

Finally, finally something breaks loose inside of Sam. He can finally say it, the words that have been screaming inside him for months, begging to be released. He whispers brokenly, "But I love you. I'm in love with you."

Leah is lightheaded. She has been waiting to hear those words again for over a year. Her heart slams in her chest, and she knows he hears it. She wants it so badly. Wants him to mean it and wants him to stay. Wants to feel his arms around her again, wants his lips pressed to hers once more. But she knows that his love for her is not the strongest part of him. It hasn't been since the day she asked Emily to be her maid of honor. The day Sam imprinted on her best friend. "Not enough, Sam. You didn't love me enough."

His eyes flash with desperate anger. "How can you say that to me? You know me. You've seen into my heart. Don't say that to me. Please. I loved you then, I love you now. I never stopped. You know I never stopped. I would never, ever have left you if thought I had any choice in the matter."

"Fine. I don't blame you then. You didn't want to leave me. I know that. I understood that the first time I phased." She flashes back to that awful day, the day her father died and what remained of her life crumbled around her. Her eyes well up with tears, but she does not let them fall. "Let's just pretend that I believe that you love me more than you love her."

"Yes," he yells. He cannot say it, his imprint won't let him say it, but it is the truth. Sam Uley the man loves Leah Clearwater far more than he loves Emily Young, even while his wolf desires Emily with a primal, overwhelming need. But he cannot say it. The closest he gets is, "Yes. You know me. You know who I am. You don't have to pretend."

Leah's throat burns. She trembles with an overabundance of emotion. But she continues. "Fine. Let's say it's true. Let's say I'm even willing to break her heart, which I'm not. What do you think it would be like for us to be together? Every time you look at me, I'm going to wonder if you wished you were looking at her. Every time we fight, I'm going to think you're going to leave me. Every time I come home to an empty house, I'm going to wonder if you've gone back to her. Every time you make love to me, I'm going to wonder if you're thinking of her. If you're remembering her body while you're in mine." She takes a deep, shaky breath. "Can you honestly say it wouldn't be like that for me?"

He is silent. His eyes plead with her, but he has no argument. It hardly matters what he says. He has hurt her so deeply, albeit against his own will, that she will always think these things of him. And they are true of his wolf even if they are not true of the man. No. For the man, they are true for Emily. Not for Leah. Emily ought to wonder every time that he looks at her whether he wishes she was Leah. Emily ought to wonder whether every time he makes love to her if he thinks of Leah's body instead. The imprint blocks these thoughts, of course, but somewhere deep inside, they are his true feelings. Even if he isn't always able to find them.

She shakes her head. She can no longer hold back her tears. "It doesn't matter how much I love you. It doesn't matter how much I want you. I don't trust you."

"No, Lee Lee. Please, no. I don't deserve your trust, but please. I love you."

But she gently removes his hands from her shoulders one by one. "Sam, fuck. It doesn't matter that you love me. It wouldn't even matter if I trusted you. What happens to us isn't up to you. It sure isn't up to me. She isn't going to let you go."

"No," he pleads. He has no argument for any of this. "Please. Don't say that. And don't you dare say it doesn't matter that I love you."

Leah steps back. "I only have two choices. Stay here and be a peripheral part of your life but have nothing of my own, or go and find something more. You aren't a choice for me. Not anymore."

Leah steps around him and turns her feet toward her home. She stops just inches away and puts a hand on his arm. "It's okay, Sam. She loves you, she does. With all her heart. So try to be happy, okay? And me, well, I'm ready to be happy again too." Leah walks away.

Sam doesn't move until he can't hear her anymore. He has no idea what to do. The wolf wants to take over, first let him run his grief away into the ground, then return to his imprint and allow himself to be comforted. The man wants to chase after the woman he loves. The woman who still loves him. Wants to scream that he will leave her cousin, break his imprint, run away with her, never look at another woman for as long as he lives. But even if he thought she would listen to him, how could he? How could he break his imprint? It is as Leah said. Emily isn't going to let him go.

X-x-x-x-X


	18. Chapter 17

X-x-x-x-X  
March 14  
X-x-x-x-X

Leah hasn't seen Sam since she left him standing in the rain. Seth has become her watchdog. He is even more annoyed with her ex than she is. She, at least, has some empathy for the heartbreak he seems to be experiencing now, while Seth just wants happiness for his sister. As Sam himself said, she knows him, in many ways knows him better than anyone. Emily sees who he is now, his brothers see into his mind, but only she knows intimately the Sam that was and the Sam that is. One look into his agonized eyes had told her all she needed to know. He is suffering. She felt him two days ago, hidden in the trees behind the house. She didn't look for him or part the curtains in her room, but she knew he was there. Seth had stepped onto the back porch with his arms folded over his chest. He had said nothing to Sam. His glare was warning enough.

Certainly she has second guessed her decision to walk away from him. Her waking thoughts are invaded by the memory of him asking for her to come back to him. Of him finally admitting out loud that he still loves her. She already knew it. Of course she did, even if he did not. Even in the time between their breakup and her phasing, when she really had no idea what had happened, she knew that his love for her could not have disappeared. As hurt as she was, she had always known that a love such as theirs could not be extinguished overnight. It could be changed, yes. Twisted, yes. Bloom, fade, rise, fall, alter and evolve, but it could not vanish in the blink of an eye.

And now he knows. He sees himself, finally, at least in brief glimpses. When his spirit leaves his body, he is just her Sam. But can she still be his Leah? The core of his love is still there, unchanged. It is nothing less than it was on the day he asked her to marry him. But it is at war with another force that has overtaken his body.

And more importantly, what is her love for him? She still loves him, of course she does. Sam Uley was everything she always wanted. But in the quiet moments of contemplation, the ones that until now were simply too painful to be born, she feels in her own heart that her love for him is different than it used to be. After all that has happened, how could it be the same?

Leah is thankful for the silence in her mind as she patrols alone. She and Paul are due to leave for Seattle after his school day ends, but for now she is blissfully alone. She loses herself in the run. In the speed. In the power of her shifted form. In the damp, chill spring air. In the myriad scents of the forest, of decayed leaves, pine needles, the edge of spring waiting to blossom. In the ground giving beneath her pounding paws. In the taste of the ocean in the atmosphere. She once thought of doing only this, just running, forever. Letting the wolf take over. She might have broken away from the pack and just run had she been able.

Will she miss this? Can she give this up? She decides not to think about it as she runs. She decides to just be.

When Quil appears in the pack consciousness to take over patrol, she immediately phases back into her familiar human body and walks home. At this moment, anyway, she prefers silence to speed.

The little house that Sam and Emily share is between her current position and her own home. Rather than go out of her way to avoid it, she pauses in the woods just outside it. She knows Sam is still at work, and Emily won't hear her approach unless she calls attention to herself. She looks and listens. She can sense her second cousin moving about the house. Cooking, no doubt. She does not approach. The house is small but well maintained, the right size for a young family. It is the sort of place she envisioned herself living once she and Sam finished college. Emily, on the other hand, had always claimed to want to move to a bigger city. Seattle or San Francisco. But here they are, living each other's lives.

Leah frowns to herself as she wonders what Sam could possibly have been thinking when he said he wanted her back. He made no mention of leaving Emily. Did he think Leah would move into their spare bedroom? Did he think he could just slip out of his house and marriage bed at night and crawl through her window? Did he think she would allow herself to be his mistress?

By the time Sam gets home later that afternoon, Leah is long gone, already on the road to Seattle. But her scent remains. He follows his nose to the exact spot in which she stood. He places his hands against the tree where she leaned. He looks down and sees her footprints in the soft loam. A part of him yearns to follow her to Seattle, to ask to run away with her. But then Emily spots him from the kitchen window and he goes inside, the urge forgotten.

X-x-x-x-X

The drive to Seattle is uneventful. Paul and Leah aren't exactly going to have a heart to heart conversation, but they bicker amicably about the radio until they land on a Motown station.

"Okay, I get that you don't want to listen to death metal," Paul admits. "But anyone who doesn't like Motown must be dead inside."

Leah snorts unenthusiastically. Sam used to like music, always wanted to learn an instrument but never had the opportunity. But once upon a time, he used to listen to music constantly. The Temptations were his favorite, not any modern band. The right music could ease the tension in his shoulders and wipe a frown off his face. When he got frustrated, she could always turn on a song and dance around him until he laughed with her. And just as she is thinking this, the song changes, and the Temptations start to croon about an imaginary relationship with a girl who is just out of reach.

Sam and Leah had a soundtrack to their relationship. She knows what was playing the first time he asked her on a date, the first time she met his mother, and the first time he kissed her. The first time they made love, it was nearly Christmas, and his mother had left the stereo on holiday music. At first, a jazzy rendition of "Baby It's Cold Outside" was playing, and she remembers the distinctive swell of a trumpet at the same time he thrust into her for the first time. It hurt, but she bore with it until the next song came on. They both dissolved into helpless laughter when it turned out to be "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer". She relaxed enough to enjoy it, and he relaxed enough that he lasted more than a minute.

Now that she starts to think about it, she can't remember ever having heard music playing in Sam and Emily's house. It can't be because Emily doesn't like it; she knows that Emily enjoys music. Has Sam stopped listening to music because it reminds him of Leah?

He is so serious now. He always seemed like an old soul, ever since his father left and he became the man of the house, but he had a lightness to him as well. She remembers a carefree, bright grin and a twinkle in his eyes. She brought out the silly side to him, the boy who wanted to tickle her until he stopped to kiss her breathless. Whose expression softened every time he took her hand in his. He laughed easily and loved wholeheartedly and without reservation. So did she.

She hasn't seen that Sam in a long time. Even Emily's Sam is not like that. Emily's Sam is solid, steady, affectionate, and strong. But carefree he is not, and neither is Leah.

She rather misses the girl she used to be. She knows her mother does too, as does Seth. And of course Emily and Sam do as well. She would love to go back, turn time around and undo parts of her life. As she once told Bella, she would not erase Sam from her past, but she would change all kinds of things if she could.

But she cannot, so instead she will find what else the world has to offer.

Leah has certainly been to Seattle before, but she looks at the city with new eyes. She had known there was a possibility she would come to college here, but had always thought she would return home when she finished. Now the city looks different. It looks like the gateway to the rest of the world.

Rachel's neighborhood is inviting. Her apartment building sits above a row of businesses. She obviously doesn't have to go far to shop or buy groceries. Campus is only a few minutes away by foot. Leah is tempted to live somewhere here rather than the dorm, partly due to Rachel herself, and partly due to the privacy that her own apartment would afford. After all, she isn't exactly the average co-ed. But it is more expensive, and she would meet more people living in a residence hall.

Rachel buzzes them in, and Paul races up the stairs ahead of Leah, his duffel bouncing against his leg. When she exits the stairwell and rounds the corner in the hallway, Paul has swept Rachel into his arms and has his nose buried in her hair. Leah hears him murmur, "Hey sweetheart," into her ear. Rachel wiggles to be let down so she can give Leah a hug of her own, and Paul sets her on her feet with a good natured huff of protest.

Rachel immediately declares, "I had an annoying week. I need a drink, you guys up for going out?"

Any fatigue Paul felt before he got here has been swept away by the energy he feels simply by being in Rachel's presence, and Leah needs a drink more than Rachel does. Too bad alcohol barely touches her anymore. So she goes to the bathroom to change, slipping out of her plain tee in favor of a brown tank top with braided straps and a v-neck featuring a knot between her breasts. She keeps her skinny jeans on and removes her sneakers and puts on a pair of kitten heels. She quickly runs her hands through her hair, applies a coat of clear lips gloss, and she is ready to go. The whole process takes about three minutes, but when she opens the door, both Paul and Rachel let out appreciative whistles.

"Hello, cleavage!" Paul smirks.

"Look at you!" Rachel coos.

"I barely recognize you without leaves in your hair and dirt under your nails!"

Paul opens the door as Leah answers, "I barely recognize you with a shirt on. And look, Rach, it's a dress shirt. Didn't know his giant sausage fingers could work those little buttons."

"Hey, you know what they say about guys with big hands, Leah." He gives her a lascivious grin.

Rachel leads them to her favorite brewpub. Paul has clearly been here before, as he orders six plates of appetizers and a pitcher of the seasonal microbrew immediately upon arrival without looking at the menu. Then he comfortably slings his arm over Rachel's shoulder and leans back in the booth. He is as relaxed as Leah has ever seen him.

Rachel has heard a little about Sam's indecision from both Paul and Jacob, but she hasn't spoken with Leah in a while. She wants an update. "Is Sam still bugging you?"

"Seth is running interference for me."

"So he's trying to bug you, then?"

"He wants me to stay in La Push." Leah takes a long draw of her beer, then stares into the glass. "He says he wants me back. Said he never stopped loving me."

Paul's eyes nearly pop out of his head. "He said that? What about Em?"

Leah shrugs. "I don't know. He didn't say anything about her. It's not like he's moving out or anything. She talked to me, though."

"What did she want?" Rachel wants to know.

"Forgiveness, mostly. Again."

"Again?"

Leah sighs. "We've had the discussion before, but never quite like this. She's told me before that she never wanted to hurt me, that she would have done differently if she had a choice, that she still loves me and hopes I still love her. She always asked for forgiveness, and I always gave it to her."

"But now she knows she did have a choice," Rachel nods in understanding.

"Yeah. So she told me that she didn't know that when she told Sam to come back to me right after the imprint, that she didn't know she had to say it and to mean it. Admitted that she always had a crush on him, but that she wouldn't have acted on it."

"But she did!" Rachel looks indignant. "He was off limits, period. I don't care what the circumstances were. I mean, I've got a sister. We liked the same boys from time to time. But it was never going to get between us. I wouldn't let it, and neither would she."

Leah shrugs. "We're not twin sisters. We're not even first cousins; she's my second cousin. It's not quite the same."

"Who cares?" Rachel sputters. She turns to Paul for backup. "You get this. Tell me the girls who are totally off limits to you."

Paul looks skeptical. "I'm not getting in the middle of this." He stuffs a potato skin in his mouth.

"C'mon. Before Leah phased, after Sam broke up with her, did you ever hit on her?"

"No," he admits.

"And we both know that not only is she basically the hottest girl on the Rez, but you would hit on any eligible bachelorette between the ages of fifteen and thirty."

"And plenty of ineligible ones," he admits.

"See?" Rachel turns back to Leah. "Even this lothario knew better than to try to get with Sam's ex. Emily should have kept her claws out of your man. Even if he broke up with you, she had no business."

Leah pours herself another beer. "She sort of offered to try to let him go."

"Try? What does that mean?" Rachel is now both confused and annoyed.

"It means next to nothing," Leah shakes her head. "I know Emily. She's tearing him up without knowing it. She's doesn't have it in her to be without him, never did. Especially now that they've been together for a while. But she's second guessing herself, and it means that Sam finally has access to his feelings for me. It's why he was able to talk to me. It's stupid. I told her not to, that all she'd accomplish is to hurt him. But she didn't listen."

"So what are you going to do? I mean, it sounds like she could let him go, you guys could be together again."

Leah shakes her head. "She needs him too much. It's never going to happen. She isn't capable of letting him go, not really. So there's no point for me. I mean, maybe if I was willing to be his piece on the side, that could probably happen. But I like to think that I still have some kind of pride left, you know?" Leah runs palms over her face. "Ugh. Enough of this. Enough of them. I need something stronger."

Leah goes to the bar while Rachel turns to Paul. "Is that really what's going on? Have you talked to Sam?"

Paul shakes his head. "He isn't talking to anybody about this. Not even Em, I think. Or at least, not truthfully. I got a glimpse in his brain when I took over patrol the other day. Saw a conversation he had with Em. He's telling her what she wants to hear, and that's all. Not how he really feels. Always been that way, I think. Until recently it just didn't bug him. He was too blinded to even tell the difference. And when he's a wolf, he really can't tell. The wolf wants Em too much, I guess since she wants him so much. It's very fucked up."

Leah approaches the bar which is crowded with patrons, all trying to catch the attention of either the voluptuous barmaid in the tight white shirt or the tall, muscular bartender. Leah finds herself inadvertently distracting more than one male customer from his original task of trying to buy his own drink. She gets no fewer than three offers of her own in as many minutes. The first guy is about two inches shorter than she and paler than Bella Swan, the second smells far too strongly of Axe body spray over unpleasant body odor, and the third has a hickey on his neck and the perfume of another woman on his clothes. As she fends off their advances, the first with polite thanks, the second with a her trademark dark humor, and the third with a scathing burn, she feels someone staring at her. She turns around to find the bartender eyeing her with piercing blue eyes. As soon as she makes eye contact, he flashes her a smile.

"What can I get for you?"

She sees four people who have been waiting longer than she and gestures, "What about them?"

"Pretty girls get to jump the line." His grin takes a sexy tilt to it, and dimples appear in his cheeks.

"Says who?"

"The guy in charge of the line."

"I'll wait my turn, thanks."

"Wonderful. Then I get to talk to you a little longer," he says as he steps to the side. "Beautiful and witty. I heard you shoot those guys down. Are you the whole package?" He flirts with her as he mixes drinks.

"I'm more than you're bargaining for," she retorts.

"I like a challenge." His eyes sparkle at her.

She shakes her head and smiles back. "I'm not the sort of challenge you've come across before."

"Rather sure of yourself, huh?" he says with a grin.

She leans against the bar. "Yes, but not in the way that you're thinking."

"Ooh. Mysterious, beautiful, and witty." He needs to move away from her to tend to a customer, so she stops to look at him. He was rather blatantly examining her when she noticed him, so she doesn't hesitate to do the same. He is tall, probably around six foot four. His shoulders are broad, his skin just a shade more golden than hers. His hair is dark brown and shorn close to his skull. His lips are full and his eyes are a pale blue in startling contrast to his bronzed skin color. But what she can't stop looking at are his hands. They are large and have scars on several knuckles. He walks gracefully back and forth behind the bar, his movements deft and purposeful.

But then she is distracted by a subtle movement out of the corner of her eye. A tiny Asian girl has just slid off her barstool to use the restroom. The man next to her, a guy she had been politely declining the whole time Leah has been at the bar, takes her drink in hand, a bottle identical to his own, and takes a brief swig. But then he holds it below the edge of the bar. No one else can see what he is doing in the dim light, but Leah spots it easily. He is dropping two pills into the bottle.

Leah narrowed her eyes, stalks toward him, and taps him lightly on the shoulder. As he turns to her, she sees the bartender pause to watch her carefully. She simply holds out her hand.

"What?" He feigns confusion. Leah keeps her expression carefully neutral, so he doesn't realize she saw what he did. A predatory smile appears on his face. "You lookin' for a good time tonight, sugar?" he drawls and takes her hand in his own clammy one.

She slithers closer to him and places her lips against the shell of his ear. In her most seductive tone, she says, "As a matter of fact, I am." She trails her hand across his chest and down his arm until she reaches the bottle. She whispers, "Too bad I want to remember it." She grasps the bottle, steps back, and as the girl appears behind her, Leah turns to her. "You know this guy?" she asks.

"No, not really," the wide-eyed girl answers.

"Then you didn't ask him to slip a little extra something into your beer?"

"Hey. Shut it, you lying bitch," the man sputters.

"I might be a bitch," Leah cocks a brow at him coolly, "but I'm not a liar." She waggles the bottle in front of his face.

With a scowl on her face, the girl asks, "What did you do?"

His eyes shift back and forth between Leah, the girl, and the approaching bouncer. "Fuck this, I don't need this shit. I'm outta here." He shoves his way past Leah and the girl, knocking her over in the process. Leah reaches out an arm to steady her.

She turns back to the girl. "You okay?"

The girl nods weakly as she watches the bouncer toss the man onto the sidewalk. "Yeah, thanks to you."

"No problem." Leah hands the bottle to the bartender.

"He was a creep." The girl's eyes stare at the now closed door. "I should never have left my drink sitting next to him; I was just itching to get away."

"Good instincts about him, anyway. You were right to go with your gut," Leah nods. "And I'm sure you won't make the mistake about the drink ever again."

"Yeah. Gosh. Thanks so much. I'm Hannah, by the way."

Before Leah can introduce herself, the bartender leans over to ask Hannah, "Do you want me to call the cops? See if you can press charges against the guy?"

"Oh, no." Her face falls. "I want to go home now more than anything. I should have gone straight home when my girlfriend texted me to say she wasn't coming. But I figured what could it hurt to stick around and have a couple drinks?"

"Apparently a lot." She looks nervous, so Leah asks, "Where do you live?"

"Just three blocks away. But I'm a little afraid of walking home, and a cab just seems a waste for that distance."

"I'll walk you," Leah offers. "He's probably long gone, but if not, he's not going to try anything to the both of us."

"But how will you get back? Then you'll have to come back on your own."

Leah smirks. "I can take care of myself, don't worry."

So she tells Paul and Rachel she will be right back, and she steps outside with Hannah. They chat on their way to the other girl's apartment, give each other basic introductions, and exchange phone numbers and email addresses. Hannah insists on taking her out the next night as a thank you, and after leaving Hannah at her door, Leah turns back for the bar.

When she slides back into the booth, the bartender immediately comes over. "Mysterious, witty, beautiful, and a knight in shining armor to boot. I never did get you that drink. What'll it be?"

"Whiskey."

He nods. "You got it."

Rachel wants to know what happened. Leah didn't explain much when she left with Hannah. "What was that all about?"

"He was hitting on her, she was shooting him down. Creep slipped her a roofie. He ordered the same thing she did, so when she went to go to the bathroom, he pretended to 'accidentally' grab hers, took a drink, and then he held it under the edge of the bar. The lighting is awful over there, so nobody else saw what was happening. But even if they did, he could claim to have just taken the wrong bottle. He obviously ordered exactly what she was drinking, then placed it right next to hers in order to give himself the excuse of picking up hers instead of his. I saw him slip a couple pills into her drink. That's when I took it from him."

Paul smiles at her as she downs her drink smoothly. "We're supposed to be off duty, you know."

"That's why I didn't beat him to a bloody pulp."

"I would have liked to see that," Paul laughs.

Rachel glances at the bar, where the bartender keeps stealing surreptitious glances at Leah. "So would he," she tilts her head.

"Who?" Paul wants to know.

"The bartender is a flirt," Leah answers.

And moments later, he appears by her side with another whiskey. "You made pretty quick work of that last one." He flashes her a sexy grin.

She cocks her brow at him. "Trying to see how quickly I get drunk?"

He nods. "So far, you seem like the perfect woman. If you can hold your liquor, I might just be in love."

Paul snorts at this. "Then consider yourself head over heels."

The bartender narrows his eyes. "I feel like that's a challenge. But your friend issued it. Not you."

Leah leans back and tilts her head up at him. "Try your best." He grins and glances at Paul and Rachel. "My friends will make sure I make it home in one piece," she reassures him.

He nods and walks back to the bar. "He's rather forward, isn't he?" Leah muses.

Rachel giggles. "No, it's like Paul said. He's in love. Or at least in lust."

"You know anything about him?"

"He's not the regular bartender," Rachel shakes her head. "But he looks familiar. He's fine, though, isn't he? Tall, too. You could actually wear heels around him."

"I have gotten used to being surrounded by giants. What would I do with an average sized guy? I feel like I'd crush him." Leah sips at her drink.

"I bet he'd love it if you tried to crush him!"

The girls continue gossiping about him while Paul sits by, amused, until the bartender returns. Leah tips back the rest of her second whiskey and cocks her brow at him. The bartender sets a single glass in front of her, pours in a small amount of bright green liquid, places an ornate slotted spoon on top of the glass, sets a single sugar cube on the spoon, and slowly drips ice water over the cube until it is dissolved.

"Absinthe?" Rachel asks, intrigued. At his nod of assent, she explains, "I've heard about this but never had the guts to try it."

The bartender notes, "The psychoactive properties are sadly overstated. But it's still pretty strong stuff."

Leah removes the spoon and tips the drink back in a single, long draw. "Not bad." She licks her lips in an unconscious gesture, and her skin flushes a light shade of pink. But that is the extent of the effect the drink has on her. "Want to do a sobriety test on me?"

The bartender throws his head back and laughs. "It's official. You're the most intriguing woman I've ever met."

Rachel reassures him, "Your instinct is right. She is. I want to try one of those."

Paul snorts. "You sure? You can't hold your liquor like we can."

"What, are you going to take advantage of me in my drunken state?"

"Is that an invitation?" he teases.

Rachel points at Leah answering, "She'll protect my virtue, won't you?"

"Good. A round for the table. You want another?" the bartender asks Leah.

She nods, and he returns a few minutes later and repeats the process with three more glasses. Leah asks, "Not that I don't appreciate the personal service, but don't you have other customers?"

He tips his head at the bar where another bartender has appeared. "Nah. I don't normally tend bar. I was just covering for my buddy until he could come."

"In that case, why don't you join us?" Rachel invites him to sit by Leah, and Leah glares at her in return.

He immediately agrees and leaves to get himself another glass. While he's gone, Leah leans forward. "Are you trying to hook me up with that guy?"

"Maybe," Rachel admits. "He's interested, you're interested..."

Leah doesn't deny it. He returns, pouring himself a drink as well, and they tap their glasses with a toast from Rachel. "To old friends and new."

Paul and Leah both down their drinks smoothly, while Rachel coughs and sputters drinking hers. The bartender can't take his eyes off Leah and sips at his. "You really can hold your liquor, can't you?"

Leah nods in response, and Paul instructs him, "Don't challenge her to a drinking contest. Trust me. She'll win."

"I've never seen you around here before. And I'm sure I'd have noticed you."'

Leah cocks a brow at him. "That's not the most original line."

"It's not a line. Well, okay, it is a line, but it's the truth. I would have noticed you."

"You're right, either way. I'm not from Seattle."

"What's your name?"

"What's yours?"

"Miguel," he answers and sticks out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Miguel."

Rachel giggles at Leah's flirting and starts to sway. She had already had three beers before the glass of absinthe, which is clearly going straight to her head. "Verrry nice to meet you, Miguel."

"Oh, someone here definitely can't hold down this stuff," Paul chuckles.

"Is it time to get you back to your apartment?" Leah asks.

"Nooo..." Rachel answers before she starts to hiccup.

"Yes," Leah laughs. "I think it is."

"But you're busy flirting with tall, dark, and handsome, here," she protests.

"Yeah," Miguel smiles wider, and his dimples reappear. "You're busy with me, Miss..."

"Leah. It's Leah."

"Look at those dimples! I want to pinch his cheeks," Rachel croons.

Leah looks back at Rachel, who is blinking hazily at them with a sloppy grin on her face. "But I do think it's time to go."

She pulls out her wallet. "No, no. All of it's on the house."

"You sure?"

"You prevented a felony from occurring here tonight. Seriously. On the house."

"Wait," Leah interrupts. "I thought you don't normally even work here. Won't the boss be mad?"

"I am the boss," he clarifies. "It's my bar."

"Well then, thanks," she gives him a warm smile and hears his heart stutter in his chest, which only makes her smile wider.

Seeing that she is about to leave, Miguel stands to let her out of the booth before he hastily asks, "Can I get your number before you go?"

She tilts her head and answers, "Next time."

"Next time? How am I going to find you?"

"Guess you'll just have to keep an eye out. Have to preserve that air of mystery."

Miguel watches them go, Rachel walking between Paul and Leah, her arms looped through both of theirs. As soon as they step outside, Rachel asks, "Why didn't you give him your number?"

Leah smiles. "I will if I see him again."

X-x-x-x-X  
March 15  
X-x-x-x-X

On the Saturday that Bella flies to Chicago, Charlie has a shift at the station, so Jacob drops her off at the airport. They take his Rabbit, as her old truck might not withstand the long drive and back. He keeps his left hand on the steering wheel, while with his right, he does not let go of Bella's hand for the duration of the trip. He rubs gentle circles into her palm with his thumb, and they both enjoy the light tingling sensation that spreads outward from the point of contact on their skin.

Jacob says, "Did I mention that I'm going to miss you when you're gone?"

Bella smiles at him. "I think you might have once or twice. But feel free to tell me again. I'm going to miss you too. You going to be okay without me?"

He knows she isn't just asking politely. Tomorrow Jasmine is coming over to his house to work on their school project. He had volunteered to do much of it by himself, to let her work on a small piece and worry about integrating the parts later. But she had insisted on doing it together, and he really had no excuse. Fortunately, he does have a good excuse to keep them from being alone together. Their project is ideally suited to discussing tribal lore with Billy, so Jacob does not have to go far to do his research and figures he and Jasmine can speak with his father together.

Billy volunteered not only to be one of their main sources of research, but also to stick around to keep Jacob more comfortable. And he wants to meet the girl that Jacob's wolf finds so threatening.

Jacob feels foolish being frightened of this friendly girl, but he is deeply uncomfortable with the idea of being left alone with her. Every time he sees Emily's face, he worries that he might do something just as bad, or perhaps worse, to Jasmine.

"Yeah," Jacob answers. "I'll be fine."

"My phone will be on. Call me if you need to talk, okay?" She squeezes his hand reassuringly. "And I'll be back on Friday."

"Six o'clock, right?"

"Yep."

He grins. "Should I wear a black suit and one of those stupid little hats? I can greet you in baggage claim with a sign with your last name on it."

"Oh, are you my chauffeur now?"

"Chauffeur, mechanic, study partner, bodyguard, sex slave, and biggest fan."

"Ooh, I like the sound of that! But you forgot boyfriend and best friend."

"Always, Bells, always." His voice is warm.

An hour later, Jacob pouts when he has to let her go through security without him. He walks with her all the way through the line in front of the X ray machines, but a bored looking attendant makes him step aside when she hands over her driver's license and boarding pass and Jacob clearly has none. He gives her a totally inappropriate kiss, holding up the line behind them, before setting her down and walking away with a cocky grin. Bella finds herself briefly glad that he is gone when she trips trying to take off her shoes to get through security, nearly knocking over the frail elderly woman in front of her.

Her flight is long, boring, and uneventful. She sleeps through most of it. But the moment she steps off the plane into O'Hare, she is almost tackled into the wall by a squealing, sparkling blur. Alice.

"Oh my gosh, where'd you come from?" Bella laughs when she recovers, hugging Alice tightly.

"New Hampshire."

"No, no, I mean, don't you have to have a ticket to get back to the gate? You guys got here a couple days ago, didn't you?"

"Yeah, so I bought one," Alice explains as she grabs Bella's hands and leads her to baggage claim.

"I thought we were going to hang out!" Bella says, a few steps behind Alice both literally and figuratively. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere, silly. I just bought a ticket so I could get back here. I was too impatient to wait for you!"

Bella blinks at her friend. First she thinks to herself that it is a ridiculous waste of money, then she realizes that she could probably spend money just as frivolously, and finally she wonders if perhaps she should give all the rest of Edward's money away to prevent herself from becoming as wasteful as the Cullens. "It's good to see you too, Alice."

Alice chatters happily away until they reach baggage claim, while they wait for the luggage to be unloaded off the plane, and until Bella retrieves her suitcase. Bella doesn't get a single word in edgewise and doesn't mind in the least. They exit to find Rosalie leaning against a Lexus SUV. Rose opens the door for her and chides Alice for letting Bella carry her own baggage.

"So," Rosalie asks after they get into the car, "Do you want to stay in the house or a hotel?"

"Oh, I'm not sure I'm comfortable in the house."

Rosalie answers, "That's what we figured. We made reservations at the Ritz."

"It's inside the Water Tower Place," Alice adds. "We don't even have to leave to do our shopping."

"What could you possibly need now?" Rosalie asks. "You've already filled all the closets in the new house."

"I can buy something small," Alice answers. "You know, just jewelry and accessories. And it's time for another wardrobe update for Bella."

Bella groans. Alice is lovely, and Bella very much enjoys her company, but she doesn't particularly enjoy being a giant doll. She quickly changes the subject. "So where are the boys?"

"Where do you think?" Rosalie responds. "When the girls go play, the boys head to Vegas."

"Seriously?"

Alice answers, "Of course. What's not to like about Vegas? Naked girls, fun shows, gambling, general hedonism."

"Naked girls?"

"It's not like they're going to cheat on us," Rosalie answers. "They're going to try their hand at blackjack and poker."

When they arrived at the hotel, Bella looks around in awe. Of course Rosalie and Alice reserved the presidential suite. It has floor-to-ceiling windows in the two story living space overlooking Lake Michigan and a spiral staircase leading to the bedrooms upstairs. A baby grand sits in the corner, and all three bathrooms are done entirely in marble.

"How much did this cost?" Bella asks.

Rosalie smirks at her. "Honey, if you have to ask, it's too expensive. But thanks to Eddie, you don't need to ask."

"You heard I'm not keeping most of it, didn't you?"

Alice nods. "You're giving most of it to the pack, aren't you?"

"Basically. I'm giving it to the tribal council to redistribute. Most of it's getting invested, though, so there's enough for the packs in the future."

Rosalie asks, "Anybody buy a Ferrari yet? Or take their own trip to Vegas?"

Bella doesn't want to offend any of the Cullens, but not one member of the pack has requested funds for anything frivolous in the least. In fact, not one cent of the money has been spent at all. She paid for her airline tickets with her earnings from Newton's, and she still works there once or twice a week, generally when Jacob is on patrol. "Just plans for college tuition," Bella answers. "There are a lot of scholarships available to the tribes, but they don't cover everything, and not everyone qualifies. I do think Jared is looking for a house for after graduation, though."

Actually, the money continues to be a sticking point. Sam and Emily, in particular, disagree about whether to use any of it at all. Emily wants Sam to quit his security job, or at least take one day off per week, but he can't bring himself to accept any of the money. Of course, he also can't bring himself to argue with her, so they are at a bit of a standstill.

Bella hasn't tried to broach the subject with Jacob again, either. He certainly agrees that his packmates should have the option to use it if they want, but he isn't going to force it on any of them. And Bella suspects he won't use a cent of it for himself unless it is an emergency. He continues to take on odd jobs on cars, and word of mouth has brought him additional business doing maintenance on a couple other motorcycles and a few mountainbikes as well. If Bella didn't enjoy hanging out with Jacob in his garage so much, she might be annoyed, but it is already her favorite place in the world.

It doesn't leave him much spare time to work on his Mustang, but he doesn't seem bothered by this at all. After all, it will take several thousand dollars to fully restore the car, and unless he dips into the Cullen fund, he doesn't have several thousand dollars to spare. So he does what he can when he can and doesn't worry about it any more than that.

Bella orders room service and catches up with Rosalie and Alice. They are willing to go out with her to a restaurant, but she knows that the myriad scents of food bother them, and it is easier to talk here anyway. She learns that Emmett will attend college at UDub in the fall as well. He plans to study computer programming and has designs to create his own video game. The family figures that it is the sort of thing he can do while telecommuting, a distinct bonus for someone who can't stay in one place very long due to his inability to age. Bella wonders if Rachel will end up being one of his TAs. Jasper and Alice will stay in New Hampshire with Esme and Carlisle and will attend Dartmouth, and neither has decided yet what to study.

After chatting long into the evening, Alice insists on going clubbing and pulls out a slinky little dress and a pair of heels clearly meant for Bella. It looks nothing like anything she would ever pick for herself, and she isn't sure she can walk in the shoes. Rosalie produces a fake ID. When she goes to the bathroom to change, she stares longingly at the huge tub and leaves rather unwillingly. Happily, Rosalie both rescues her from falling throughout the night and also rescues her in the techno dance club that Alice favors. Bella suspects that if Jacob were here, she could simply slither her body against his and call it dancing. Of course he isn't, so she awkwardly sways and stumbles about until a stranger hits on her. Rosalie tugs her away, claiming to need to go to the ladies' room while Alice giggles at them from her position perched at the bar flirting with men she has no intention of touching.

It is two AM when Bella returns to the suite. Her friends stop by long enough only to make sure she gets into the room safely before they leave again. After all, they have no need of sleep, and Chicago offers plenty of recreation all night long. Bella debates between inviting, fluffy sheets and the huge jacuzzi tub, but the bed calls to her. She almost doesn't want to sleep at all, knowing that Jacob is on patrol and won't even be waiting for her in the little red house when she sleeps. But her lids droop.

_And when she opens the door to the little red house, it is empty. But she enters his bedroom, changes into one of his oversized shirts, and snuggles into his bed. Surrounded by his scent, in this place, his home, her home, she is content._

The next morning, she awakens to the smell of bacon and the sound of giggling. She opens a bleary eye and sees Alice standing at the foot of her bed holding a plate. "Good morning, sleepyhead!"

"Morning, Alice." She struggles to sit up. "What's that?"

"The perfect waffle, or so I'm told. It has bacon and white cheddar baked into it and crumbled all over it, and there's maple syrup here to douse it in."

"Wow," is all Bella can think to say. Alice pushes a tray over her knees, setting the food down, and indeed, the waffle is perfect.

Forty five minutes later, they climb into the rented Lexus and drive to the Lincoln Park neighborhood. The skyscrapers make way for tree lined streets, and Rosalie parallel parks in front of an old house.

Bella peers at the structure, immediately drawn to the windows looking down from the third floor attic. "That's less intimidating than I imagined," she says, relieved. It is made of white stone, gone gray with age, and the front door is ornate with stone carvings bordering it. But she only counts five main windows facing the street, although the center one opens onto a balcony enclosed by wrought iron railings. The style is quite old fashioned and rather fussy, but she had been expecting something much larger.

"Um, it doesn't look that big from here, but it goes straight back quite a ways," warns Alice.

Rosalie unlocks the front door, and Bella immediately changes her mind. Rose explains, "It's a seven bedroom, nine bathroom single family home. It was built in 1888. French provincial style. Edward hasn't lived here for decades, no one has, but it has been well maintained."

It is, in a word, opulent. Bella walks from room to room, overwhelmed by the dark walls, old wallpaper, heavy drapery, chandeliers in nearly every room, and antique furniture. "This isn't a house, or even a home. This is a mansion," she breathes. She pauses in a library. All four walls are lined with floor to ceiling bookcases filled with old hardcover books. It is the only room she has any comfort in whatsoever. Right outside the door are black and white photographs of Edward and his parents. He looks young, but not much unlike the Edward she knew. The photo must have been taken not long before he was turned. The differences are hard to pinpoint. But somehow he looks innocent and carefree in a way she had never seen him. She peers at the likeness, wishing she could see the green color of Edward's eyes before he was turned into a vampire.

Over her shoulder, Alice murmurs, "Let's remember him that way, shall we?"

As Bella nods at Alice, Rosalie asks, "Would you like the photo, Bella?"

She shakes her head. "Would Esme like it? Or Carlisle? Or would it just hurt?"

"I think that's a good idea." Alice takes it down from the wall and places it in her oversized tote.

Going through the entire space takes about an hour. They step out onto the back patio and Bella breathes the crisp, cool air with a sigh of relief.

"What do you think?" Alice asks.

"It's beautiful."

"But," Rosalie prompts.

Bella considers what to say. It is just too much. Everything about Edward was just too much, and this is no exception. She longs for a little red house in the woods. "It's very Edward."

"Old fashioned, stuffy, static," Rosalie chuckles while Alice frowns.

"I don't know what to do with it," Bella admits.

"I take it you don't think you might want to move in?" Rosalie asks, already knowing the answer.

"Of course not! Maybe I could stay in the servant's quarters off the kitchen and wall off the rest of the house! But it doesn't seem like something that should be sold, either. What about you guys? Your family is used to these big spaces."

"Not this big," Alice denies. "If we were to come back to Chicago, we would stay in one of the places Esme designed," she shakes her head.

Bella turns back toward the mansion and stares up at it. "Seems wrong to sell it. What would I do with the money? Add it to the pile?"

"You could donate the house as is," Alice suggests.

"You think?" Bella perks up.

"To a museum or a university, maybe?" Rosalie adds.

Bella nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, that sounds good. Let's do that."

"We can have Mr. Jenks find a lawyer in the area to handle everything. Unless you want to want to handle it yourself?" Alice asks.

Bella shakes her head vigorously. That is just about the last thing she wants to do.

"Do you want to see if there is anything you might like to keep for yourself, Bella?" Alice smiles gently.

"Not really, I mean, it's not like any of that furniture would fit in Charlie's house."

"There are more personal items inside."

Not long ago, Bella would have jumped at the chance to explore Edward's human life. Now it just causes a little pang in her chest. But she feels guilty having a stranger do everything or making the Cullens do it all, so she agrees to take a closer look. They head to the attic. It is cluttered and covered in a thick layer of dust. Bella immediately notices a writing desk and chair set facing the round window overlooking the street below. A fountain pen still sits on top of a yellowed parchment. Bella frowns at it. In stylized cursive it reads, _Where are you, my love?_ There is nothing further. Bella can easily envision him seated here, still as stone, looking out this window and watching life walk by.

Rosalie takes an unnecessary sigh. "He always had the tendency to brood." When Bella looks at her with sad curiosity, she explains, "He wrote that in, oh, 1930 perhaps? He was always lonely. Always. He built you up in his mind to the point of obsession, Bella, created an image of the woman he was waiting for. Not physically, mind you. But he projected all those desires on you when he met you and found he couldn't read your mind."

Alice says quietly, "He loved you as much as he could."

"I know," Bella answers. Alice is unable to stay, the loss of her brother still too painful, so she goes to wait in the bare garden outside. There is still a chill in the air, but it will not bother her.

She starts by opening an old trunk next to the desk. Inside are childhood memorabilia. An ancient baseball, a small, hand-carved rocking horse, a child's rattle, a set of dominos, a bag of marbles. As Bella brushes dust off old boxes, she uncovers a youthful individual that she realizes she never knew. It is nearly impossible to imagine her Edward playing with any of these toys or games. As youthful as he appeared, there was nothing young about him. Did she ever really know him?

Rosalie sees her frowning over an old set of jacks. "We aren't the same as our human selves, Bella. We try our best to retain our vestiges of humanity, but the Edward you knew? He isn't here. This space, this house, these things, they belonged to human Edward. Who was, by all accounts, a lovely young man."

"I never met him, did I?"

"He was gone long before you were born. You brought out the best of what remained."

Bella nods and puts down the cards, picking up a set of thin wooden blocks held together by faded, fraying ribbons. When she lifts them up by one end, the tiles appear to cascade down the ribbons. "What is this?"

Rosalie approaches her and runs a single manicured finger along the length of the toy. She smiles sardonically. "A Jacob's ladder." And just the name brings a genuine smile to Bella's lips. "I'm so glad you made the right choice, Bella." And Bella receives the only hug she will ever receive from Rosalie Hale. The immortal girl's embrace is shockingly gentle.

Later that evening, Alice and Rosalie leave for another night of clubbing. But Bella doesn't have the energy, nor will her feet stand the high heels again. So after she eats a leisurely room service dinner and relaxes with a favorite novel, she decides to take a hot bath in the huge marble tub. So she opens the tap for the hot water, dumps in a generous amount of vanilla scented bubble bath, and strips off her clothes.

Just before she steps into the inviting water, she feels a flush of heat across her skin, and she breaks out in a mysterious sweat. What's going on? It's warm in the bathroom, but not that warm. And just as she completes that thought, a rush of arousal floods her body, nearly causing her to keel over. Her clitoris throbs between her thighs, and she finds herself suddenly wet. She freezes in place as another wave takes over, causing her to arch her back and undulate her hips.

And then she realizes what is going on. Jacob. These are Jacob's sensations.

Fear climbs up her spine and roots in her brain, nearly overriding the lust that has taken over her form. Jasmine went to his house to work on their school project. Is she still there? It is only eleven o'clock in La Push. She might be with him. Bella knows exactly what is happening to Jacob's body right now. She can feel the blissful sensation echoing in hers. Something is gripping and stroking his hard length. There is heat and pleasure and lust flowing through him, across two thousand miles, landing in Bella's body. Is Jasmine touching him right now? Is her hand wrapped around him? Or worse yet, her lips, or even... Bella can't complete the thought, but neither can she drive it from her mind. She knows the other girl wants Jacob, has seen the look of longing in the other girl's eyes. She would not hesitate should Jacob make himself available. And Bella knows that his body desires Jasmine's, no matter his reassurances to the contrary. Not only is the other girl simply beautiful, but his instinctual, involuntary reaction to her is so strong.

Bella moans out loud as another wave of pleasure overtakes her. She sways in place as tears form in her eyes. She doesn't want to know, but she needs to know. She has to know if she is losing the love of her life right now, she has to know if the only person she thinks will never betray her is doing so at this very moment. She stumbles naked from the bathroom and takes her phone from her purse with shaking hands. She pauses for several more seconds, body shivering with bliss, fear warring with anger in her mind. But she has to know.

Bella picks up her phone and dials.

X-x-x-x-X


	19. Chapter 18

X-x-x-x-X  
March 16  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob wakes mid afternoon after spending the night on a dull patrol. He chides himself for resenting boredom. After all the excitement of the past year, being bored is a luxury. But awaiting Jasmine's arrival, he is more uncomfortable in his own home than he has ever been. He hasn't been so grateful for his father's presence in quite some time. Then he gets a reprieve. Ten minutes before Jasmine is due to arrive, Quil calls, asking, "Hey, is she there yet?" Both of his oldest friends know exactly how awkward and aggressive Jacob gets around her.

"No, but any minute now."

"How 'bout if I join you? We haven't done a damn thing to start this project, but if I could pick your dad's brain it would be a good start."

Jacob wants to jump at the offer, but he is embarrassed to need the buffer. "What about your grandpa?" It isn't as if Quil doesn't have a fountain of tribal lore in his own house.

"I'll bring him too. We can get the old coots together and let them go. It'll be great. That way you guys can also get info from my grandfather."

"It's not a bad idea." Jacob is relieved. "We can all have half our research done in one night. We'll split it up so we don't cover all the same stuff."

"Or we could all just phase in the classroom and be done with the project without any effort. A reenactment of the old legends," Quil jokes.

"Too bad Embry can't join us." They both know he is on patrol.

"Meh. I'll just let him do the other half of the work."

Jacob orders enough pizza to feed everyone, and as soon as he gets off the phone, a knock sounds on the door. He opens it to find a beautiful girl with a tentative smile on her face. She is so used to his cool treatment of her that she is almost as nervous about coming to his home as he is. He steps back and ushers her in. Billy immediately rolls in from the kitchen and gives her the warm greeting that Jacob neglected, although Jacob can see that behind his father's smile is an appraising gaze.

Jacob feels dizzy in the enclosed space, trapped with her scent filling the room. He shakes his head clear and concentrates on keeping his wolf calm. He is practiced at it by now and is pleased to find that he has good control. And he learned in the previous week to just ask her questions about herself and let her talk. She has maintained his unspoken physical boundaries, and they have come to a middle ground. But he still doesn't want to be alone with her. He knows that Bella still harbors a fear that he wants Jasmine on a physical level, but Jacob knows himself.

The honest truth is that he might very well be dating Jasmine if Bella wasn't in the picture and if his wolf didn't despise her. But she is, and he does. He has been in love with Bella for as long as he can remember, and his feelings for her have only ever gotten stronger. The fact that a pretty girl is interested in him is meaningless compared to what he already has: the girl of his dreams waiting for him with open arms. His arousal at her touch is disturbing, yes, but also easily avoided. What he told Bella is true. He is much more worried about attacking her violently than amorously. His wolf's instincts that she is a threat override any attraction that he feels.

So he makes certain to keep his distance. He politely offers her a soda, which she accepts, and she chats with Billy, glancing at him from time to time with a sad little smile. A small part of him feels bad for being so unfriendly, but he reasons with himself that it is for her own good. Soon another knock sounds at the door, and Jasmine looks unpleasantly confused when Jacob answers, explaining that two more people are joining them. But her slight frown quickly turns into a grin when Quil enters with his grandfather. He gives her a big hug, and she is relieved that at least one person here is her friend.

The night is a success. Jacob stays out of Jasmine's reach the entire time, Quil keeps her relaxed and laughing so she doesn't really notice Jacob's attitude, Billy and Old Quil always love having an audience, and by the end of the night they have a great deal of their projects done. Ironically, Jasmine chooses the legend of the spirit warriors to base their project on and has no idea why everyone else in the room thinks this is funny.

Later that evening Quil offers to escort Jasmine home. Billy, having enjoyed the storytelling session immensely, isn't ready to stop talking yet and goes with them, chatting animatedly with Old Quil. Jacob lets out a sigh of relief. He checks his phone and is a little disappointed to find no messages from Bella but decides not to bother her. He has time to get a little bit ahead in his chemistry class, so he and the textbook fall into his more spacious bed; he had never taken the second twin downstairs after Rebecca and Solomon went home. The two combined twin beds make a decent sized resting place for his oversized form, although it leaves almost no room to walk in the tiny space. He feels a small lump sticking up from the space between the two mattresses and reaches down. He pulls out a pair of silky panties and his heart rate immediately speeds up. Bella obviously left these here after their last tryst three afternoons prior. Billy had been out to dinner with a friend, so Jacob had taken advantage of their privacy and carried her to his bedroom caveman style. His mouth begins to water and he hardens as he realizes that her scent permeates the scrap of fabric.

He brings the panties to his nose and takes himself in hand. He loses himself in memories. He doesn't need fantasy anymore. His mind jumps back to the night before he tricked the Volturi away. He had taken Bella to their driftwood log, where she had accepted his mother's ring on her finger. But before that, he had pleasured her in the nearby woods. He recalls the sensual look of her, the intoxicating scent of her, the enticing sound of her, the sweet taste of her, and best of all, the rapturous feeling of her nude body blanketing his own. He had orgamsed deep inside her as she rode him while he lay back upon a mossy knoll.

But suddenly, his blissful recollection is interrupted by the ringing of his phone. He peers at the display.

"Bells, is that you?" His breathing is heavy.

She can't bring herself to answer, her words stuck in her throat.

"Honey? Are you there?"

She can't hear another voice, nor the sound of another person breathing. But if she had supernatural hearing, perhaps she could.

Jacob finally figures out that she could feel what he was doing. "Oh, crap. I'm sorry, you felt that, didn't you? I didn't even think." His words tumble over each other.

"Yeah," she chokes out, her heart gripped with the fear that he is not alone. But he has no idea.

"I'm sorry. It never occurred to me."

"No, I'm sure it didn't." She manages to keep her voice steady and cool.

"Did I interrupt something? Are they there with you? That must be so embarrassing. Hell, I'm embarrassed. I'll go take a cold shower or something."

Her heart rate starts to slow. He does sound chagrined, not guilty. "No, I'm alone. They're out clubbing. I don't have their endurance, you know?"

"Oh good. I was afraid you were stuck with them, you know, smelling you."

"No, no. I was just about to take a bath."

A beat of silence. Oh god. Hot, wet, naked Bella. His favorite kind. "You were?" She feels her heart start to slam in her chest, and again realizes it is because of his.

Her frown turns into a smirk. "Yeah. What were you doing?"

"Your panties," he whispers. "I found your white panties, you know, the ones with the little blue ribbons holding them together. You were wearing them on Thursday."

She releases a whoosh of relieved air. "Yeah, I wondered where they went."

"They got caught between my mattresses. They smell like you, and I'm all lonely here without you, so..."

Bella feels another rush of arousal spread from head to toe. This one belongs to both of them. Watching Jacob touch himself inflames her like nothing else. "So..." she prompts, walking back into the bathroom.

"So what are you wearing?" His octave drops a register.

She still wants confirmation. "Wait, are you alone?"

Thankfully, he misunderstands her question, as it never occurred to him to sleep with Jasmine while Bella is out of town. "My dad's with the Atearas and Rach is in Seattle this weekend. It's just me."

She licks her lips and lowers herself into the tub. "In that case, I'm wearing bubbles."

He groans, and she feels an echo of pleasure between her legs. "God, Bells."

She breathes, "Are you touching yourself right now?"

"Mmmm, yeah. I'm sorry, I'll stop if you want."

"No, no. Don't stop."

"Ooh, say that again," he moans and holds himself tighter.

"Don't stop, Jacob. It feels good." And it does. Now that her anxiety is gone, only lust remains. Even if she couldn't feel each sensation as he grips himself, the sound of his voice and the knowledge of what he is doing would drive her wild. She can't quite believe what she is doing, but she really wants to know. "What were you doing with my panties?"

"Unh..." he grunts. "Fucking sniffing them, Bells. It's like you're here with me. I want you here with me."

"Me too, baby." It feels like a ghost is massaging her swollen clitoris.

"Your panties are like some kind of tease."

"Did you like what we did when I was wearing them last?" she asks, already knowing the answer. They had found themselves alone at his house while Billy was out, and he wasn't due back for at least two hours. They had been seated at his kitchen table doing homework when Jacob looked up to see her nibbling on the end of her pencil in concentration. Neither of them was anywhere near done, so he had tried to refocus on his assigment, but to no avail. He couldn't help but imagine his dick in place of the pencil. He started squirming in his chair to the point that she looked up at him in curiosity. But he hadn't admitted to what was going on right away. Then she had shaken her hair loose, removing it from its practical bun, since the tugging sensation on her scalp was causing a tension headache. As the scent of her shampoo reached his nostrils, his arousal climbed higher. Her body had responded with an echo of her own. When the combination of her vanilla and strawberry fragrance with the unmistakable scent of her arousal hit his nose, he growled and stood up so quickly that he knocked over his chair. He lifted her bodily out of hers, tossed her over his shoulder, and dropped her on his bed. In moments she was stripped down to her matching bra and panty set. He had untied the bow at her hip with his teeth, a new favorite habit of his that made her buy any lingerie she found with functional ties. He had proceeded to kneel on the floor with her legs over his shoulders. He tongued her until she came and had repeated the process until her clit was so oversensitive that she begged him to stop and bury his cock inside her willing body. He had done so gladly. From start to finish he hadn't spoken one coherent word but communicated only in guttural grunts and moans.

He pulls at his engorged cock. "God, yes. You make me so crazy. I miss your skin, your scent."

"I'm bathing in vanilla bubbles right now." He moans again. She bites her lip and wants more. "I left some strawberry lotion in my overnight kit. It's in the bottom drawer of your dresser."

"Oh." The stroking sensation on her clitoris pauses, so she puts her phone on speaker and sets it on the edge of the tub, suddenly afraid that in her clumsiness she will drop it in the water and destroy it. And she very much wants to finish what they've started. She hears shuffling on the other end of the line, and then the massaging sensation resumes. It is even better than before.

"Mmm..." She involuntarily arches her back. "Tell me. I want to hear."

He swallows hard and looks down at himself. "I'm fucking jacking off with your lotion."

The mental image nearly undoes her. Her eyes slip shut as she pictures him, muscular body rigid, his large, hot hand gripping his length, slippery with her lotion. "Use my panties too," she whispers.

"Shit," he gasps and complies, wrapping the fabric around himself. "I'm going to ruin these. I fucking want to ruin you," he growls. "What are you doing? Tell me."

She hasn't done much yet besides talk and listen, yet she is as aroused as she has ever been. "I'll do whatever you want."

"Your breasts," he answers immediately. "Touch your breasts."

She complies, lightly running her hands over her soft curves. She teases her nipples lightly with the palms of both hands. "Like that?"

"Ohh, I can feel it." The sensation is feather light. "More. Use your whole hand." She cups her slippery breasts and squeezes gently. "Yeah. Like that," he groans and tries not to buck his hips forward.

"I want more, Jake."

He can picture her in his mind as easily she can him. Her breathy, moaning tone is exactly the same as when she begs him. "Yeah. Pinch your nipples, but lightly."

"Mmmm..." She complies, rolling them and pinching them, but not as hard as she really likes. She squirms and wriggles under the water as phantom fingers touch her most intimate places. For a minute, the only sounds over the phone are gasps and hums. "Please, Jake..."

"Damn. Okay, harder. Just like you like it." They both groan together as electricity shoots through their bodies and straight down into their groins. "Unhh. That feels really good. I want to touch you so bad."

"Me too. But I can feel you anyway. I can feel what you're doing."

"What do you want? What do you want me to do?"

She rakes her nails over her hardened nipples, relishing his gasp in response. She loves how compliant he is, the control he is relinquishing to her. "Get more lotion in your palm. Be generous," she instructs.

She hears him move around briefly. "Mmkay. Now what?" He can hardly wait for the next order.

"Grab just the head. Like it's my mouth on you. Don't do anything to the base, not yet. Pump gently, just a little."

"Fuuuuck," he hisses as he complies, enveloping just the head of his penis with his hand. "I want it. I want your lips on my cock, baby." She moans aloud in response. She can feel it too. It feels like his tongue is between her legs, just barely. "You can't believe how sexy you look when you give me head. That little, pink tongue. Your full, red lips. The way you look up at me with those pretty brown eyes. Unhhhh..."

"I love sucking your cock, Jake." She admits it so quietly that were it not for his overdeveloped sense of hearing, he would never have heard. A year ago she could never have imagined herself saying such things, but there are no inhibitions left between her and her Jacob. "Do you feel it?"

"Yeah... Mmmm... Uhhh... So good... Do you feel it too?"

She pinches her nipples more tightly. "I do. I want more."

"Yeah, yeah," he pants. "Massage the mark on your breast."

She does, and bliss thrums down along her skin and through his. "God, Jacob."

"I love it when you say my name like that." His voice is a low rumble.

A few more minutes pass, both of them desperately needing a firmer touch. Bella breaks down first. "Please. Please, more."

"On your clit or in your pussy?" he hisses through gritted teeth.

"My clit. It aches, Jake. I can feel what you're doing, and I want your tongue on me."

"Shit. Please. Yes. Touch your clit, Bells." The way he grits out his words in desperation makes her feel almost as sexy as he thinks she is.

She runs her right hand down the length of her body. "Tell me how," she whispers. She loves hearing him talk just as much as he loves hearing her.

"Circles." He can hardly talk anymore, and struggles to come up with words. "Just one finger. Real light." She does so, a feather light touch, and whimpers at her own touch.

He gasps in response. "Ahh... That's good." Jacob maintains his shallow pumps, only touching the head of his engorged length as she asked, trying to extend this as long as he can.

"Ohhhh..." she gasps and breathes. "More, please. More," she whimpers again.

"Mmmm, Bells. Just one finger. Slide one finger into your pussy. Pretends it's mine. And take your other finger off your clit."

"No," she pouts in protest. She wants both sensations rocketing through her. "It's not enough."

But Jacob loves to tease her even when he is two thousand miles away. "Just one finger. I can tell if you're cheating," he smiles.

"Okay. Yeah. Yeah." She slides her finger as far as it goes, searching for the spot that makes her insane.

"That's it, baby. Finger fuck yourself," he growls. "Slide in and out."

She bites her bottom lip and obeys, hips writhing under the water. She bumps the heel of her hand against her clitoris with each thrust, crying out.

Jacob keeps his grip on himself light to keep from coming, and he listens to Bella's sensual moans. When he can sense how needy she has become, he lets go of his erection entirely and almost laughs when she whimpers in protest as she feels the difference in her own body. "Why did you stop?" she asks.

"Trust me, baby. Add another finger."

"Oooh, yes. Mmmm..." she hums. "S'good."

"Find that spot, honey. Find your g-spot," he whispers.

"God, Jake. Oh, oh..." She spreads her legs farther, reaches inside herself, arching her back, fingers plunged deep inside. She reaches up with her free hand and pinches her nipple.

Jacob knows exactly when she finds the spot. It is why he let go of himself; otherwise he would have come. He relaxes and lets Bella's bliss wash over him. "Massage it. No more thrusting. Massage your g-spot."

Bella climbs to the brinks of ecstasy, poised right on the edge. "Ooooohh... Mmmmmm... I'm so close, Ahhhhh... Ja...cob." Her voice breaks on his name, and it is his favorite sound in the entire world.

"I know, baby, I know," he moans. "I can feel it. Add a third finger. That's me, do you feel me? That's me inside you." He grabs his cock again but does not move his hand.

"Yesss..."

"You're so fucking hot, Bells. So damn sexy. I wanna fuck you so bad."

"Please, please. Fuck me, Jake. I want you here. I want you to fuck me."

Jacob drops his phone right by his ear so he can still talk into it. He fists his shaft with both hands but still doesn't move. "Yes. Ride your hand, baby. It's me. I'm fucking your sweet pussy. Deep inside."

Bella undulates her body, obeying his orders and twisting her hips against her own fingers. "Jacob... Jacob... Please..."

"Are you ready to come, sweetheart?" He grits out the words through a clenched jaw. His cock throbs. His entire body feels like it's on fire. He can feel her, so close yet so far, the shade of her perfect body wrapped against his.

"Yes, please, yes..." she sobs.

"Your clit," he hisses. "Pinch your clit."

Bella lets go of her breast, shoves her fingers hard against her g-spot, and slithers her other hand down to follow Jacob's orders.

And she wails with pleasure as she comes, bucking against her hand, writhing under the water, as two thousand miles away Jacob feels her orgasm rocket through his body. He thrusts his own hips into his two fists, pumping his enormous cock into his hands, into her body, into the love of his life. He feels her. She is just there, just on the edge of his being. His hands are her pussy, her hands are his cock. He is everywhere. He is in her heart, in her soul, she is woven into the very threads of his being, the fabric of who is is. He explodes at the same moment she does, spraying his bare chest with cum. And he feels her with him, feels the phantom of her body like a feather against his skin.

Two minutes later Bella realizes where she is and slips her hands out, resting them on the edges of the tub. The water is now tepid around her, and most of the bubbles are gone. "Jake? Are you there?"

"I'm right there with you, Bells," he sighs. Bella suddenly blushes. Thank goodness Alice and Rosalie are still out. "That was really fucking hot," he grins.

Bella giggles with him, sated despite their separation. "I miss you slightly less now."

"Mmph. I still miss you plenty." He peers down at himself. "God, I'm a mess."

"Not me, I'm clean as a whistle in this giant bath."

"Damn. I want to crawl through the phone and join you there."

"Mmm. Me too." Her voice drops to a murmur. "How 'bout I come find you tonight? I dreamt I slept on your bed last night, but you weren't there since you had patrol."

"But I'm here tonight. Come find me?"

"I will."

"Promise?"

"Yeah."

That night, Bella pulls out the only items that she took from Edward's home: his fountain pen, the short note, and the Jacob's ladder. She sets them on the nightstand and stares at them until her lids slide shut, wondering at the alternate path her life might have taken. She is not the praying sort, but she sends up a mental thanks for her Jacob as she falls asleep.

_The little red house welcomes her. She is far from home, but the distance is meaningless. This will always be here for her. She turns the knob, slips through the living room and down the hallway, and opens his bedroom door._

_And there he is. He lies flat on his back, just a thin sheet covering his hips, skin almost glowing. His breathing is slow and deep. He does not stir. She pulls a soft tee shirt from his dresser and changes into it, pulls back the sheet, and snuggles against him._

_"Mmm..." His arms wrap around her. "Where have you been?" His voice is a low, sleepy rumble._

_"I'm right here," she whispers._

_"You're here?" His eyes crack open just far enough to confirm her presence. The corners of his mouth turn upward._

_"I'm here." She traces her jaw with her fingertips and tucks her head into the crook of his shoulder. Moments later she is asleep in his embrace._

X-x-x-x-X  
Seattle  
X-x-x-x-x

Leah doesn't see Miguel again over the weekend. While Rachel sleeps off her hangover, she tours the residence halls. Paul stays behind in a poorly conceived attempt to cook breakfast for Rachel. Elle had tried to teach him how to cook basic breakfast foods. Paul turned out to be enthusiastic but otherwise unteachable. By the time Leah returns, every pot and pan in the kitchen is dirty, and there is no edible food to be had. There had been six slices of toast, but Paul got hungry making breakfast and ate them all. The three of them stop by Rachel's favorite diner. Then they spend the rest of the afternoon wandering through different neighborhoods so that Leah can get a feel of Seattle.

In the evening, Paul waits impatiently while the girls shower and dress. When Rachel emerges, Paul's mouth goes dry. She wears a strapless black dress that ends a few inches above the knee. Leah follows in a short, deep green, belted A-line dress. Paul happily takes both their arms and escorts them out.

Hannah meets them at a trendy new restaurant in Capitol Hill. Her girlfriend Jo turns out to be a leggy blonde. Paul spots them sharing a brief but intimate kiss under the restaurant's awning and decides he has died and gone to heaven. He spends the rest of the evening referring to his companions as his harem. Conversation flows easily between them. Hannah turns out to be a graduate student in pharmacy, although she appears to be no older than sixteen, while Jo is a sophomore studying education. After dinner, they head to a dance club where Paul is the envy of every other man in the place, particularly when Jo gets drunkenly handsy with Hannah on the dance floor with Paul sandwiched between them. When Rachel gets approached by a drunken and rude suitor, Leah comes to the rescue before Paul has a chance to beat him away. Leah sees her distress and comes up behind her, wrapping her one arm around her waist and sliding the other along her collarbone possessively. She flashes the stranger a cool gaze and says, "Sorry, this one's taken," pressing a kiss to Rachel's hair and pulling her gently away. They end up dancing rather provocatively together, turning male heads left and right, and Paul's mind spins with ridiculous fantasies.

By three AM they head for Rachel's apartment, where she falls into bed with an exhausted Rachel. Paul strains to listen for any sounds coming from the single bedroom, foolishly hoping that Leah and Rachel will continue their little relationship ruse, but he falls asleep to the even sound of their breathing. They all sleep until noon.

The next afternoon is spent in a coffee shop, where all three of them need to finish homework. In the evening, Leah cooks dinner while Rachel grades exams and Paul reads a novel for his English class. "So what do you think? Where do you want to live?"

"The dorm was a little young for my taste. I kind of feel like I skipped right past eighteen and on to twenty five. I'm probably better off living off campus."

"I hear you. I lived on campus for a year, and that was enough."

"If I really needed a way to meet people, it would probably be more appealing."

"But seeing as you've made three friends in forty eight hours, you'll probably not be too lonely, huh?"

"I count two. I'm definitely going to hang out with Hannah and Jo the next time I'm in town."

"Can I come?" Paul snickers from the couch.

Rachel continues, "Um, three. Miguel the hot bartender? Or owner, I should say?"

"Is he my friend?"

"He sure wants to be. How come you didn't give him your number?"

"I dunno. He was really intrigued by the whole mysterious woman, hard to get thing, and it was fun playing the part. Plus, it's not like I don't know where to find him, right?"

"I'll bet you he's out tending bar every night for the next week," Paul adds.

"So are we going back tomorrow night?" Rachel grins.

Leah shakes her head. "Nah. I want to get Indian food for dinner tomorrow, that okay? There's nowhere around home to get it."

"Sure. There's a great place two blocks from here. I have office hours until five, but we can go after."

"What about Trevor? I don't mean to pull you away."

"We're having lunch tomorrow, so don't worry about it." Leah notices a slight tightening in Paul's shoulders at Rachel's announcement, but nothing more.

"Great. I think I'll try that falafel joint you pointed out for lunch, then. This neighborhood is great. I'm tempted to look for a place here."

Rachel looks up. "Hey, we should get a place together. There's a building I've had my eye on about two blocks from here, but it's out of my price range. It's awesome, and a two bedroom would be pretty doable if we split it."

"Seriously?" Leah sounds excited at the prospect.

"Yeah. Want to take a look at it on Tuesday before you go? I'm free after two."

"Definitely. I'm game."

Paul calls out, "The two of you should get a place with Jo and Hannah. But just a one bedroom. You can all share a king sized bed."

"And you'll drill a hole through the bedroom wall to watch?" Rachel laughs.

"No. Webcam's easier."

"In your dreams," Leah answers.

"Yep. Wanna hear about the one I had last night?"

Rachel throws a pillow at Paul's head.

Paul leaves shortly after dinner, barely getting home in time to get a few hours sleep before school. But he doesn't mind being tired at all after the weekend he had. Even Leah couldn't spoil his time with Rachel. In fact, away from Sam he thinks she's actually fun.

Leah spends Monday looking at apartments. She and Rachel had come up with a wish list of features the night before. Sue has offered to cover all of Leah's expenses and does have the funds from Harry's insurance policy, but now that Edward's money is available, Leah would much rather her mother keep the savings for her own retirement.

On her way to lunch, Leah passes by Miguel's pub. She pauses, wondering if he is inside. She frankly isn't certain why she didn't give him her number. It isn't that she doesn't find him attractive; she does. She doesn't want to admit it, but she has gotten used to being around the pack, has come to think of masculinity as embodied by broad shoulders, a defined jaw, and brute strength. As much as she enjoyed her dates with the boys from Peninsula, they seemed like just that. Boys. Even Brad, whose company she enjoyed immensely, was very much a boy. Miguel seems different, and not just because he must be a little older or because he physically resembles her idea of masculinity. She can't quite put her finger on it, but she finds him almost as intriguing as he finds her.

She sighs. It hardly matters. If he knew her, the real her, he'd run screaming in the other direction. She doesn't go inside. Instead, she picks up her food, takes it to a nearby park, and watches the world go by.

By the time she meets Rachel for dinner, Leah has seen six apartments. She tells Rachel about the top prospects, and they decide to go back to see two the next day plus the one Rachel is already interested in. Rachel nearly burns her tongue on one of Leah's curry dishes, and Leah declares she will move to Seattle for the food selection alone.

As she breaks up a chipati, Rachel asks, "So why are you going back tomorrow? You're welcome to stay longer. It's fun having you here. You could meet Trevor tomorrow night. He's making dinner, and he's a great cook."

"I'm patrolling Wednesday," she answers, hoping Rachel doesn't ask why. She doesn't have it in her to have another discussion about Sam and Emily. She isn't certain what they're doing, but suspects they might be going away to a cabin owned by Emily's family. Emily probably intends to either try to let Sam go as Rachel has released Paul or make some kind of final claim. Either way, Leah has no faith that Emily would be able to follow through with letting him go. She spent months aching for him to come back to her, and now that she understands exactly why he won't, she can't invest any more of her heart on something that cannot be. Even if, deep down, he wants it as much as she does. Probably even more.

Rachel doesn't pry further, so Leah continues, "Besides. I'll be back for good over the summer."

On Tuesday, Leah sleeps luxuriously late and eats a leisurely lunch before meeting Rachel at the first of three apartments. The building has no gym, a must for Rachel, so they cross it off the list. The second is perfect but for the location, being farthest from the university. The third, which Rachel had been eyeing since she moved to town, is just right. Leah wants to talk to her mother and Seth before signing a lease, but both girls are already mentally arranging furniture around the space.

Leah packs her things efficiently and gives Rachel a warm hug goodbye, then walks around the building to load her luggage into her car. But before she can get there, the acidic stench of a vampire appears out of nowhere. It is fresh, incredibly so. And she knows it. She has smelled this scent before on two separate occasions in the pack mind. The first at Christmas when Jacob found it meandering through Forks, past Bella's home, and inside the abandoned Cullen home; the second more recently when Collin found it driving a rental car south along Puget Sound.

It can't possibly be a coincidence.

She quickly follows it back, running and dodging the pedestrian traffic, to a black sedan sitting only twenty feet from her own car. The car is empty, so she abandons her suitcase on the ground and follows the trail back toward a narrow alleyway. She realizes with a start that the vampire headed through the service entrance of Rachel's apartment complex. As she opens the door, her nose begins to burn. Not a second later, she hears the distant, terrified screams of a small child and the muffled sound of a man begging.

"Please, no, my baby, please put her down. You're scaring her!" The voice is below her. She can hear it through the ventilation system.

Were it not for the vampire's decaying, bleach odor, she might struggle to find her way to the voice. But all she has to do is follow her nose and the sounds of struggling. She sprints along the hallway, down two flights of stairs into the sub basement, and zigzags through another narrow hallway. She finally emerges in a large, open storeroom with old furniture and boxes piled haphazardly about.

A female vampire stands before her. Leah barely registers her maniacal grin, her statuesque form, or her flowing blonde hair. She hardly even notices the small toddler sobbing and writhing in the grip of the monster. The little girl hangs several feet off the ground, the vampire's iron grip locked around her neck just loosely enough to allow breathing. Leah barely even notices that the pleading father is none other than Miguel.

All she sees are the vampire's golden eyes.

It gives her pause. So instead of phasing immediately, she tries talking with the vampire. "You're not a killer," she whispers.

The vampire sniffs the air and wrinkles her nose in displeasure. Then she narrows her eyes. "I've killed more people than you've met in your entire lifetime. Admittedly, not lately." Then she smirks. "But I'm adaptable to my environment. I'll do what I need to do."

Miguel looks between them, perplexed and horrified. He starts to ask, "Leah? What's going on?" but she shushes him with a quick gesture.

"How long has it been since you killed a human?" Leah whispers.

The vampire cocks her head at her, fascinated that she is trying to have a rational discussion. "Not as long as I'd like. There are occasional... mishaps."

"How long has it been since you killed a child?"

Her expression freezes for a second, and she looks for all the world like a stone statue. The moment breaks. "Perhaps I will do so today. This one smells delicious."

Leah shakes her head and raises her hands in a placating gesture. "That's not why you're here."

"You're right," the vampire answers.

"You're here for me," Leah guesses.

"Any one of you mongrels would do, yes. I didn't know there were any bitches in the pack," she hisses.

Leah fishes for information. "Carlisle didn't tell you?"

"He hasn't been especially forthcoming with the truth," she snarls.

The puzzle starts to fit together in Leah's brain, but she doesn't have all the pieces yet. "What do you think really happened?"

The vampire's face turns into an ugly mask. "You murdered him," she whispers. "I waited for him for a thousand years, and you curs killed him!"

Leah nods in understanding. "You're Irina. You're here because of Laurent. I wasn't there, but my brothers killed him, yes, for attacking a woman on our lands."

"Liar!" Irina roars and tightens her grip on Miguel's daughter. "He was joining me. He pledged not to take any more human lives!"

"He failed," Leah whispers, trying to figure out how to get the child away from Irina.

"And now you shall fail!" Irina screams, her face a monstrous mask. "And you shall die. One by one, your brothers will all die!"

Irina flings the child bodily away to the opposite side of the room, away from her father, as Miguel screams. Leah makes a split second decision. Rather than phase and attack Irina, she dives toward the baby, deftly catching her in her arms as she skids across the floor on her stomach. She crashes into a heavy dining room table that tips over onto her shoulder. Behind her, she hears Miguel rush Irina with an enraged yell. She turns her head just in time to see him throw a wicked uppercut to Irina's jaw only to have his fist crack upon contact. Irina just laughs at him and throws him out the door. He crashes against the opposite wall in the hallway.

It gives Leah the chance to place the screaming girl on the floor beneath her and immediately phase into her silver wolf, snarling, clothes shredding off her body, her four paws protectively surrounding the small child under her belly. The girl immediately stops crying, looking up in wonder, as Miguel gapes at her from the hallway.

In the pack mind, she feels Sam's immediate terror. He is on patrol on the reservation and awaits Collin and Seth to take over.

_Lee lee? What's going on?_

Irina turns back to her. "I was hoping to battle with you this way. There's no challenge in killing you in your human form."

Efficiently, she tells Sam, _Irina. One of the Alaskan bitches. Laurent's mate looking for revenge._

The last part of the sentence is told as Irina launches herself at Leah. Leah rises up on her hind legs to bat her away. She rips a gash in Irina's arm with her claw and smacks her to the side, but due to her limited mobility protecting the baby beneath her is unable to do any serious damage. Irina lands gracefully in a defensive crouch only a few feet away.

Meanwhile, Sam lets out a desperate howl of warning, and her brothers phase in one by one in a panic looking for a vampire to kill. She hears a cacophony of voices overlapping one another.

_What the fuck?_ Embry yells.

_Where are you? _Brady enters. _Who is that?_

Seth arrives. _What's going on? Leah? Are you okay?_

_Seattle. Sub basement of Rachel's apartment building. _She braces herself for another attack. She barely has time to curl herself protectively over the wailing child before Irina lands on her back.

Paul phases in at the same moment. _Shit!_

Sam sounds like he is in tears. _No, goddamit! Lee lee!_

_Throw her off, throw her off! _Brady yells.

Embry adds, _Don't let her get her arms around you!_

Leah notices Jacob blink in quickly while his beta has already started sprinting toward Seattle. But they are all hours away. She is on her own. Jacob quickly assess the situation and issues an Alpha order, _No unnecessary distractions! Let her concentrate! _And there is near silence. _Leah, show me what part of the building you're in._

Leah has had a stroke of luck. Rather than crush her ribcage, which Irina could easily do from her position, she is trying to sink her fangs into Leah's flank. But she has been letting her hair grow out a bit, and the vampire can't get through her thick pelt. It gives her the opportunity to fling herself backward, over the overturned table, crashing into the concrete wall and jarring the vampire off her back. But not before Irina lands four blows that crack three of the ribs in her right side. Meanwhile, Leah visualizes the path through the building that she took from the back alleyway as stabbing pain overwhelms her right side and she lands on a pile of boxes.

_Got it. You hang in there._ All the wolves can sense that Jacob has a plan, but for some reason he isn't being forthcoming. Collin phases in at that moment, and Jacob tells him, _Try to spirit walk to Leah. She needs help. Sam, you too._

_What? Is she still in Seattle? I can't go that far, _Collin explains.

One hundred fifty miles away, Leah and Irina both climb out of the pile of boxes they landed in. Leah regains her footing first and whirls back towards Irina, whose back is against the wall, now standing on a stable set of boxes. The screaming toddler has jumped to her feet and started scrambling toward her father, but she trips on the loose debris on the floor. Leah plants herself between the child and the vampire as she struggles to breathe. It feels like daggers are slicing into her lungs, and she feels blood trickle through her fur.

_Just try!_ Jacob roars. _Sam, you too. _

Sam is in too much of a panic, and they all know he has never spirit walked farther than the bounds of the reservation. He keeps running.

Jacob's voice is calm. _I'm coming, Leah. _And then he disappears.

Irina flies back at Leah. Despite her pain and inability to take a proper breath, Leah does not budge an inch. Even if she dies, the child will live. Of that, she is certain. Irina had been expecting her to dodge or be easily knocked aside after her injury, but she simply refuses to be swayed. She locks her legs in place as Irina crashes into her headlong. Irina manages to snake her left arm around the back of Leah's neck, but the position puts her right arm directly in front of Leah's jaws. She doesn't hesitate, and with a feral growl rips the vampire's hand off in a single bite.

Irina falls back in pain, screaming. Miguel rushes into the room to gather up his daughter.

Leah coughs up blood and struggles to breathe. Her right lung feels like flames are ripping through it, and she cannot fill it with air. But she pounces on Irina anyway, pinning the vampire's arms down with her front paws. But before she can sink her jaws into the vampire's face, Irina brings up her feet to kick Leah away. She flies through the air, and Miguel barely ducks down in time. As Leah crashes into a set of wooden furniture, smashing it to pieces with her bulk, Irina shoves Miguel and the baby out of the way and stalks toward Leah.

Leah spits up red foam and gasps for air. She is drowning in her own blood, her broken ribs stabbing into her right lung. In her mind, Sam wails a wordless cry of fear.

Leah doesn't manage to get back to her feet before Irina lands on her, pinning her bodily to the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Miguel huddle down under a steelcase desk, draping his body over his daughter's. The way to the exit is blocked by Irina and Leah herself. Broken wood digs into Leah's injured right side. The vampire lands blow after blow to the back of her head with her good right fist, and Leah feels her skull crack at the third strike.

But Irina's crouched position brings Irina's legs close to Leah's mouth. As her head snaps forward from the force of Irina's punches, she takes the opportunity to clamp her jaw around Irina's left shin. She snaps it cleanly off just under the knee, and the vampire tips over, losing her balance.

"You bitch!" Irina screams as Leah flings the appendage behind her. It lands somewhere in a pile of furniture. The vampire shoves out her good leg to kick Leah in the muzzle, but Leah blocks it with a swipe of her paw, shoving Irina back several more feet.

Leah rises to her feet, swaying with dizziness and lack of oxygen. She coughs up more blood. Her vision blurs and her right side burns. She feels the terror of her pack, silently obeying Jacob's order not to distract her. Seth and Sam are both racing toward her, but there is no way they will reach her in time. Distantly, she hears footsteps running toward them.

Irina crouches on the ground, balancing awkwardly with her remaining foot and fist planted on the concrete floor. "It doesn't matter anyway," she hisses. "Even if you kill me, it's too late for all of you. They'll come for you."

Leah doesn't wait to hear the rest of Irina's speech. She leaps at the vampire, desperate to rip off the creature's head before she succumbs to the darkness threatening to overtake her. She hits the vampire hard, knocking her onto her back. But Irina flings her arms up and under Leah's jaw, pushing upward to prevent Leah from getting her jaws around her head or neck. They are equally matched in strength and injury and remain locked together, struggling for dominance.

Leah can barely stay conscious, let alone kill the vampire. As the seconds tick by, her oxygen level falls from her collapsed lung, and the pocket of blood pushing on her brain from Irina's blows to her head grows steadily. She will not last for much longer.

Then a harsh wind begins to swirl around the room. Leah glances upward and sees her Alpha, her spirit chief, her friend. Jacob's spirit form spins in the air, creating a harsh wind. It screams through the room. Miguel huddles under the desk, his daughter tucked between his chest and the floor, as he cranes his neck around to watch what is happening behind him.

Jacob whips up a wind strong enough to topple the boxes from their precarious perches. He swirls the air violently around Leah and Irina until the wind reaches hurricane forces around them, papers, boxes, and small pieces of broken wood being picked up from the wind rising in the air. Irina watches the room move around her in awe but does not unlock her arms. So he moves his ethereal form behind a broken chair leg, and with a great gust of wind flings it across the floor toward Irina's head.

The wood splinters against her face. It isn't enough to break her skin, but is just enough to distract her. She loses her grip for a millisecond, and Jacob screams, _Now!_

Leah sinks her teeth into Irina's neck. Just as her jaw clamps down through the vampire's useless airway, she feels a final blow to the side of her head.

The last thing Leah hears are screams. Sam and Seth screaming in her mind, the cries of her brothers, the cries of the baby a few feet away. She feels Irina kick her across the floor. She refuses to unlock her jaw, and absurdly feels a last rush of satisfaction when, through her blurry haze of pain, she sees the vampire's head bobbing insecurely on what remains of her neck. But as she skids into a pile of furniture, a heavy wooden endtable lands directly onto the fracture line of her skull, and she sees no more. The last thing she thinks is that she still, even in this, isn't enough.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: As always, many thanks to my beta, Babs81410, at JBNP.


	20. Chapter 19

X-x-x-x-X  
March 18  
X-x-x-x-X

_Jacob watches Leah fade into unconsciousness. The remains of Irina's neck fall from her mouth, and she slips into her vulnerable human form. Across the room, Irina struggles to crawl across the floor. She has to use her one good hand to hold her head steady on her nearly useless neck. She starts to scoot toward Leah to retrieve the piece of her body that Leah just tore out. Jacob hears his sister's footsteps approaching. Just before he sent his spirit here, he placed a single call to Rachel, relieved when she answered on the second ring. He knows his incorporeal form has many limitations. He cannot fight Irina directly. His speech with animals will do nothing here. There is no wind strong enough to stop her from reassembling her body without killing Leah first. But there is one other element that he might use. He just needs a little help._

_Jacob places himself behind a stack of boxes, blowing them over into Irina's path. It slows her down only slightly. But it is just long enough. _

_Rachel appears in the doorway and follows the instructions Jacob gave her. She tosses a lit match toward the broken vampire struggling on the floor. _

_It is just the spark Jacob needs. He bends his ethereal body over the flame and draws it up into himself, inhaling it into his formless lungs. He feeds the ember with his rage at the monsters who have overturned their lives. The ember grows. He turns to the startled vampire who sees not Jacob the man or even Jacob the spirit, but a rising pillar of flame hanging in the air above her. And with a roar of utter fury he breathes pure fire down onto the creature._

_Irina blazes. The venom dripping from the gaping wounds in her neck and the stumps of her arm and leg catch like gasoline. She collapses in a rictus of silent agony, her lungs no longer connected to her mouth to allow her to scream. She writhes, flailing about, as Rachel screams, "Hey bartender!" unable to recall his name. "Get out of there before the whole thing goes up!"_

_With wild eyes, Miguel uncurls himself from under the desk. He runs around Irina's flaming remains and hands his screaming daughter off to Rachel before picking up Leah's naked, limp body. They flee down the hallway, and Jacob blows the door shut behind them in an attempt to contain the fire. The automatic sprinklers activate, drenching the entire sub basement and basement. Jacob throws his spirit form over the thrashing vampire to shield it from the water. The droplets cascade over his invisible back, never touching the remains. He stokes the flames coursing through Irina's body with fresh blazes from his lungs until there is nothing left beneath him but a pile of ash._

_Then he flies up through seven stories to land in Rachel's apartment. _

_And suddenly he feels useless again. Miguel has laid Leah out on Rachel's bed. Blood oozes from the wounds in her head, already slowing from her rapid healing. But the sounds coming from her chest are terrifying. Her heart is weakly but frantically beating away in an attempt to oxygenate her body. Her left lung fills with air, but her right lung emits only gurgles. Her lips begin to turn blue. _

_"Call 911!" Miguel screams at Rachel._

_"We can't!" she cries. "Did you see what she is? She can't go to a hospital!"_

Jacob immediately returns to his body. He opens his eyes and reaches for his cell phone, dialing Carlisle Cullen with one hand while he runs to the kitchen, brushing past his alarmed father. With his other hand, he dials his sister's apartment. Carlisle picks up the phone first.

"It's an emergency!" Jacob yells without preamble.

"Tell me," Carlisle wastes no time.

In his other ear, Rachel opens with, "Jake? I don't know what to do!"

"Hang on, Rach. I've got the doc on the line. It's Leah. Irina attacked her. She's in Seattle, no one's anywhere near her but Rachel. Irina knocked her out with a bunch of blows to the head and cracked some ribs. She can't breathe and she's turning blue!"

"Are the cracked ribs on both sides?" Carlisle asks.

"Just the right side. I don't think she's getting any air in that lung. She was coughing blood before she collapsed, and all I heard from that side of her chest was gurgling."

"Wait, are you there?"

"No. I was there in spirit form, but I left to call you. I'm in La Push. She's with Rachel."

"Okay. I'm hanging up, Jacob. I need to talk to Rachel."

Jacob gives him the number and lies on the floor, not bothering to go somewhere more comfortable while he spirit walks. Billy just nods at his son and retrieves a pillow to put underneath his head.

_In an instant, he is back in Rachel's apartment. He hovers over Leah's form as Rachel puts Carlisle on speaker. The doctor immediately dives in with questions. "Is the skin broken? Does she have any open wounds on her chest?"_

_Rachel swipes away the blood on Leah's chest with her sheets and finds no open wounds. "If she had any, they're healed already. The skin is unbroken."_

_"Good. Put the phone on her chest. The left side."_

_"Is she okay?" Rachel asks as she places the phone down. _

_"There is air moving on this side and her heart still beats, but it's too fast. Put the phone on the right side of her chest now." Rachel scrambles to obey. "Her right lung must have collapsed. I don't hear air moving on this side. You have to reinflate it."_

_"How?" Rachel sobs. "She's turning blue! What do I do?"_

_"Put the phone next to you." Rachel complies. "Where are her ribs cracked? Can you see any deformity from the outside? You may have to feel along them with your fingers. Gently," Carlisle instructs._

_"Um, yeah, she's got a huge bruise on the right side."_

_"Okay, front, side, or back?"_

_"Right along the side."_

_"Top, bottom, or middle ribs?"_

_Rachel feels along Leah's ribcage and confirms, easily pressing her fingers into lumpy irregularities along the ribs. "Bottom."_

_"Okay. Lift her arm up, rest it over her head. Feel in her armpit. Do you feel the rib there?"_

_"Uh, yeah."_

_"Count two ribs down from there. Just feel your way down."_

_"Uh, okay. Now what?"_

_"Is that rib broken?"_

_"I don't know," Rachel answers, tears streaming down her face. "I don't think so."_

_"Mark that one with a pen."_

_Rachel sends Miguel to retrieve a sharpie from her desk and does as she is told._

_"Now what?"_

_"You're going to have to make an incision to reinflate the lung."_

_"What?" she screams. "No, I can't!"_

_"It's that, or call the ambulance right now," Carlisle explains. "If you do that, they will help her, but I don't know what will happen if they figure out what she is." Jacob murmurs reassurances in Rachel's ear that she does not hear. _

_"Fuck!" Rachel cries. "Okay, okay!"_

_"Get the sharpest knife you have. A small one, preferably. And a pair of scissors with a sharp tip. And open up a pen. You'll need the barrel or some other stiff tube. Get a good light so you can see what you're doing. And toweling to wipe away the blood so you can see."_

_Rachel gathers her supplies with shaking hands. Miguel takes the flashlight from her wordlessly and shines it over the mark on the side of Leah's chest. _

_"Okay," she sniffs her tears away and kneels next to Leah. Her body trembles and her hands shake. Jacob does the only thing he can think to do. He wraps his phantom arms around his sister, blanketing her with his heat and his support, and her tremors settle. "Tell me what to do."_

_"That rib you marked? You'll have to make a horizontal cut along the top edge."_

_"Where?" Rachel asks, perplexed. _

_"Imagine that you've drawn a line straight down from the middle of her armpit. In the middle of the right side, just along the top edge of the rib. About two inches long. You can do this, Rachel."_

_"Okay. Okay. I can do this."_

_Quietly, Miguel repeats, "You can. You can do it." His daughter clings silently to his leg, her face buried in his pants. _

_Rachel presses the knife to the Leah's skin. The kitchen implement isn't dull, but Leah's flesh isn't easy to cut. "It's not working. I don't know if I have a knife sharp enough."_

_"Here," Miguel hands over a Swiss army knife from his pocket. _

_She bites her bottom lip and makes a superficial slice with the knife, but almost as soon as she does so, the wound knits back together. "Shit! She healed, Dr. Cullen. I did it, but she healed."_

_"Be aggressive, Rachel. You need to get through the skin and the muscle. Remember. Right above the rib."_

_"Okay, okay." She tries again, but after two false starts her hands shake again. Jacob whispers encouragements to her and helps to steady her hand. This time she sinks the blade about a centimeter deep. "It's working!"_

_"Stick your finger in the space so it doesn't close up again!" Carlisle warns. _

_Rachel obeys. Blood oozes from the wound, making it difficult to see. "I can't tell what I'm doing!"_

_"Have your companion blot with the towel around your hand. Sir, keep the field clear for her."_

_"Got it," Miguel replies, dabbing at the blood with one hand and keeping the flashlight aloft with the other, ignoring the throbbing pain that remains from punching Irina._

_Carlisle rushes on. He knows the severity of the situation since he can hear her thready heartbeat and shallow, nearly absent breaths through the phone. "Dig forward with your finger, Rachel. Above the rib. You need to get through the muscle layer. On the other side is the lining of the lung. It's probably filled with blood and air and is shoving on the lung, pushing it to collapse. That's pressing on her heart. You need to release the pressure."_

_Rachel tries to push forward with her finger but gets nowhere. "It's too tough! I can't!"_

_"Then use the scissors. Don't open them. Just push forward with the point. Push it right down along the top edge of the rib, right along your finger. Keep your finger there so it doesn't close." Rachel does as instructed, pushing the scissors down through the muscle layer. "If you need to, open the scissors a bit as you go to give yourself room. Then close them and push more to dig. When you get deeper, open them up a bit to make more space. Like this. Push, open, close. Push, open, close."_

_What Rachel and Miguel cannot sense, Jacob can. The pressure exerted on Leah's heart is becoming too great, the lack of oxygen too dire. Her spirit starts to separate from her body as her heartbeat stops. He sees her rising above her own form. Jacob screams an Alpha order at her. "Not yet! It isn't your time! Go back!" Leah's spirit stares at him wide eyed, and she obeys his command. _

_Rachel struggles against Leah's flesh trying to heal around her finger. Finally she simply leans her torso down into her elbow, using brute force against Leah's shifter body, and a hiss of air sounds as a jet of blood shoots out of the hole Rachel created, striking her in the neck and chest. "That's it! That's it!" Carlisle yells, hearing the air and blood escape from Leah's chest. "Push the tube in! Along the side of your finger. Quickly, before the hole heals!"_

_Miguel hands her the pen casing, and she shoves it in. She has to push hard against the already healing flesh, but she manages to insert the tube into the space outside Leah's lung. "What now?"_

_"Let the air and blood escape. Hopefully her lung will reinflate. Just hold the tube in place. Sir, get in position to do CPR, but wait for my order. Rachel, keep the tube still." Carlisle hears with alarm that Leah has neither pulse nor breath. But he is afraid that chest compressions will collapse her lung once more._

_Jacob screams another alpha order at Leah. "Breathe!"_

_And she does. _

_Carlisle yells an ecstatic whoop when he hears Leah take a gasping breath and her pulse resume. Rachel sobs in relief and pulls the edges of the covers over her to shield her naked form. Gradually Leah's lips return to a shade of pink rather than gray, and her chilled fingers warm. _

_"What now?" Rachel asks. _

_"Now we wait. Jacob said something about a head injury. Can you see anything on her scalp? Her skull? Feel with your fingers."_

_Rachel does her best but can't tell much other than there is matted blood in Leah's hair. "No fresh bleeding. And, um, it's not crushed in or anything."_

_"Without taking her to a hospital, that's about all you can do. Rosalie will be there tonight. Esme called her when we realized what was going on, and we chartered her a plane. She'll be there as soon as she can. I would come myself, but I am actually still at work."_

_"You are? In the ER?"_

_Carlisle chuckles. "Hiding in a broom closet, actually. When I saw your brother's phone number, I just popped into the first private area I could find."_

_Miguel's daughter climbs onto the bed. The little girl pats Leah's cheek with her small, chubby hand and asks, "Puppy?"_

_Carlisle lets out an uncharacteristic snort of surprise. "Who is that?"_

_Rachel answers sheepishly. "That's, um, well..."_

_"Sophia," Miguel supplies. "My little girl."_

_"And you, sir?"_

_"Miguel. Leah saved our lives."_

_"And you helped save hers, Miguel." Carlisle's pager goes off. "Ah. I am needed. Will Leah's mother be coming?"_

_"I don't know, probably."_

_"If she hasn't left yet, tell her to steal some IV supplies and fluid. Leah should be rehydrated. She has probably lost a fair amount of blood. Have her bring a surgical tray and chest tube as well. Rose can replace the pen you used when she gets there. Call me if you need anything, all right?"_

_"I will."_

_"You've done an amazing job, Rachel. You should be very proud."_

_Rachel hangs up the phone, and she and Miguel introduce themselves, as he did not get her name while they were in the pub the week before. He thanks her for rescuing him, his daughter, and Leah, and Rachel responds, "Oh. That was my brother. Not me."_

_Miguel looks perplexed, having seen none of Jacob. While Rachel stammers to explain, uncertain what is safe to reveal and what is not, saying that Jacob should be arriving later that evening. _

Jacob takes it as his signal to go and returns to his body only to open his eyes to Sue Clearwater hovering over him.

"What's going on?" she demands.

"Come with me. Leah needs you." He explains the situation as best he can while he drives Sue to the hospital in his Rabbit to gather supplies. He phases in to give Seth, Sam, and his brothers an update while Sue is inside. Sam is barely consolable when he sees in Jacob's memory the moment when Leah's heart stopped and her spirit started to drift away, and knowing she is still unconscious with a head injury doesn't help him recover. His other brothers murmur amongst themselves about Jacob's control over not only the wind, but fire and water as well, but Sam couldn't care less.

Jacob learns that Collin was unable to send his spirit all the way to Seattle. He reassigns Jared to cover Seth's patrol, then he releases the rest of the wolves and returns to his car. Sue makes three trips back and forth, emerging with what looks like the entire contents of a supply closet pilfered from her workplace, and he tells her that Sam and Seth are well on their way to Seattle and will beat them there.

Sue taps her foot nervously all the way to Seattle. They arrive well after dark. Jacob wraps his arms around Rachel while Sue heads right past Miguel and Sophia seated on the couch. She enters the bedroom where Seth has crawled into the bed, curling himself protectively around his big sister, and Sam sits in a chair next to the bed, Leah's hand clasped in his left hand, his right keeping the tube in her chest in place.

Sue covers her mouth with her hand, stifling a sob, and allows herself a moment to cry as she stares at her firstborn child lying still, pale, and nearly lifeless. And after two tears fall from her red eyes, she takes a deep breath and steps forward. She puts her hand on Sam's shoulder and gently pushes him out of the way. Seth sits up and hugs his mother. He reaches over to keep the tube in place, explaining that Leah's healing body keeps trying to push it out.

Wordlessly, Sue gets to work. She checks Leah's blood pressure, temperature, oxygen level and pulse. She slips a nasal cannula into Leah's nose and hooks it to a tank of oxygen. She listens to Leah's heart and lungs with her stethoscope, gently shifting aside the pyjamas Rachel changed her into. Miguel had cut a hole in the side in order to expose the tube. She starts IVs in both of Leah's arms and hooks up the lines to bags of saline. She tucks absorbent, plastic lined pads underneath her daughter and rinses her hair free of blood so she can examine her skull, finding neither obvious depressions nor any flesh wounds. She tapes the tube securely in place. Then she gets Sam, Seth, and Jacob to help her change the bloody sheets from underneath Leah.

Then she takes her daughter's hand in her left hand, her son's hand in her right, and she bows her head and waits.

In the living room Miguel introduces himself and explains that he had been picking up Sophia from his sister's apartment. She apparently lives three floors above Rachel. Jacob then quietly tells Miguel the legends of his people. Sophia has fallen asleep in his arms, but Miguel listens raptly. Rachel murmurs to Trevor on the phone, apologizing for missing their dinner with the excuse of a stomach bug, then returns to help Jacob finish explaining the situation to Miguel. They ask for his discretion, and he promises not to betray the woman who saved his life and the life of his daughter. Around the time Jacob finishes, Rosalie arrives, Bella and Alice in tow.

Jacob grabs Bella in a tight, brief embrace. The look on his face tells her all she needs to know. She slips into the bedroom, where Rosalie is hugging Sue. "We'll do anything we can," she reassures her.

"Thanks for coming," Sue answers. She glares at Sam, who has bent over Leah protectively in response to the vampire in the room.

After they separate, Rosalie explains, "Carlisle will be here at 10 am. He traded shifts for the next two days."

Sue nods and takes a deep breath. "Okay."

"How is she?"

"Unresponsive. I took her vitals ten minutes ago. Temp is a little higher than normal, 110.2. Resps at twenty. BP 90/54. Pulse 110. Pulse ox is 96% on two liters. Pupils reactive and equal."

Rosalie turns to face the gathered crowd. "Can somebody tell me exactly what happened?"

Jacob and Seth piece together a comprehensive explanation, while Sam can add little. He flinches every time Jacob or Seth describes one of Leah's injuries.

When they are done, Rosalie asks Sue, "Can I borrow your stethoscope?" and bends to examine Leah. Then she fingers the makeshift chest tube protruding from Leah's side. She loosens the tape holding it down, and the tube immediately starts to wiggle out.

"Oh!" Rosalie exclaims in surprise as she steadies it with her hand.

"Her body is trying to heal itself, get rid of that thing," Seth explains.

"She might not even need it anymore," Sue nods.

"Her lungs sound good, at least, relatively speaking."

Sam finally speaks up from his position sitting at Leah's side, holding her left hand. His voice is raspy He looks like he has aged ten years in the past few hours. "Will she wake up then?"

Rosalie shakes her head and says gently, "No, I'm sorry. She is probably still unconscious because of the head injury rather than the collapsed lung."

Sam's expression crumples. He lays his head down next to Leah's.

Rosalie calls Carlisle, and they agree to allow the tube to work its way free. Leah's status remains unchanged, her breathing still steady. In minutes, the wound heals over.

And then they wait.

Bella calls Charlie, whom she had called from O'Hare. He offers to swtich his shift and come to Seattle, but the small apartment is overcrowded as it is, and there is nothing for him to do but worry.

Miguel tries to take Sophie up to her aunt's apartment, but as soon as he tries to move her off the couch, she wakes and protests. She refuses to leave, protesting, "Puppy? Puppy!" When her father goes to pick her up, she toddles into the bedroom and struggles to climb up the bed until Seth reaches down and helps her. Immediately she snuggles between Seth and Leah, curling up against Leah's uninjured side, sticking her thumb in her mouth and closing her eyes. Sam, who hasn't let go of Leah's other hand, leans against the other side of the bed. Sue sits at the desk looking in amusement at the child, and the room is crowded. Rosalie stands still in the corner, the only one truly comfortable in the middle of the night with neither a chair nor a bed.

Rosalie is smitten with the adorable little girl. "How old is she?"

"Eighteen months. I swear she usually doesn't try to sleep on strangers like that," Miguel answers. "And you are?" he sticks out his hand.

"Rosalie Hale. It's nice to meet you. I'm friends with Leah." She firmly shakes his hand, and he yanks it back from pain and surprise at the cold.

From the doorway, Jacob says quietly, "She's one of the good ones."

"There are good ones?" Miguel asks.

Rosalie shakes her head. "A few. And I'm not that good."

Sue smiles at her. "Yes dear, you are. You learned it from your father."

"That much is true at least," Rosalie admits.

Sue turns to Miguel. "He's the doctor coming in the morning." Then she frowns a little, finally registering him. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

Miguel flashes her a sheepish grin, showing off his dimples. "I'm just a guy with a crush on your daughter. We met a few nights ago, and then again when she saved me and Sophia from that... thing." He glances at Rosalie. "Sorry, no offense."

"None taken," she smiles, but she is looking at Sam, who has tensed up visibly at Miguel's announcement.

Sue hasn't noticed Sam, but does find Miguel's forthrightness charming. "You have a crush on Leah?"

"She's amazing," he nods. "Although I admit that she's a hell of a lot more amazing than I first thought." Then he finally registers Sam glowering at him. "Oh, man. I'm sorry, is she your girl? I thought you were her brother."

Before Sam can respond, Seth sits up and snaps, "No, she's not his girl. I'm her real brother. He's her pack brother. She isn't seeing anyone right now. How did you meet Leah?" Seth really does want to hear more about the man that has suddenly become intimately involved with their world, particularly since he apparently likes Leah. And it doesn't hurt that Sam will have to hear it too.

Miguel's eyes light up. "She came into my pub. I was tending bar, and she came in with her friends. Spotted her the instant she walked in the door. I see pretty girls all the time, but she's like, in a class all her own, you know? And I hear her shooting down guys left and right while she's waiting for a drink. Then she saves this other girl, a complete stranger to her, from getting a roofie slipped into her drink. Even walked her home. I comped her a couple drinks and she slammed them back like they were just glasses of juice. I knew she was something special. Just had no idea how right I was! That guy that was with her, is he one of your pack brothers too?" At Seth's nod, he chuckles, "You guys are all huge. I'm used to being the biggest guy around, being the best fighter too, but I think maybe Leah's going to change my opinion of that."

Sue furrows her brow. "A fighter?"

"Boxing."

"Oh, that's where I've seen you before!" Jacob exclaims. "HBO late night, right?"

"You must be really good!" says Rachel.

"I'm okay," he shrugs.

Jacob scoffs. "Miguel Hernandez. That's you." He turns back to Rachel. "He was the heavyweight champion two years ago."

"And let me tell you that having a skinny, pale blonde chick take my right hook in her jaw and just, well, laugh at me? It was sort of emasculating." Sue finally notices his swollen, red right hand.

Rosalie reaches out to take his hand more gently. "You punched a vampire?" He nods. "Then you probably broke your hand." She gently pushes at the swollen knuckles, and he winces. "A boxer's fracture, most likely."

"Wouldn't be the first time," he sighs. "I guess they call it that for a reason, huh?"

"You should get that splinted," Sue adds.

"I was hoping to stick around until she got better, especially since Soph likes her so much." He points at the bed, where his daughter has fallen deeply asleep using Leah as a pillow. "I think she's worried about her."

Bella asks, "Isn't her mom worried about her?"

Miguel frowns. "Nah. Her mom hasn't been around in, oh, eight or nine months. Was barely around before then, either."

Sue offers, "If you think Sophie will be okay without you, maybe you should go to the ER and get that hand checked out?"

"She probably will sleep for a while. After a long day she's out for a good ten or twelve hours, and this has been a really long day."

Rachel says quietly, "We'll watch her if you want. Does she need anything that isn't in her diaper bag?"

"No, it's fully stocked. I feel sort of weird just leaving her with a bunch of strangers, but you guys are the strangers that saved her life. Plus I know where you live," he jokes.

Sue pulls out her phone. "Here, let's exchange numbers. If she wakes up, we'll call you, and that way you can get a hold of us if you need us."

Miguel reluctantly agrees to leave Sophia since she is sleeping so peacefully. Jacob drives him to the ER. Since it is the middle of the night, everyone else tries to get some rest. Rachel opens her pull out couch, where she and Bella lie down. Sam makes no move to let go of Leah's hand, but he falls asleep in the chair next to her bed. Seth remains stretched out on the bed next to his sister, Sophia cuddled between them. Rosalie and Alice talk in hushed tones in the kitchen with Sue.

When the sun rises a few hours later, Jacob and Miguel return bearing a new splint and an enormous box of bagels and pastries. Sophia hasn't moved an inch since she fell asleep. Alice leaves to retrieve Carlisle from the airport.

Sam wakes up to the sound of chattering from the next room, finding himself alone in the room with Leah and the little girl. His heart clenches at the sight of the child resting with her head on Leah's stomach. Sophia has dark skin and thick, black hair. Her bowtie lips are parted, and her long, thick lashes brush her cheeks, which are still chubby with baby fat. The image arrests him. She looks like she could be Leah's daughter. She looks like she could be their daughter. This is exactly what he used to dream of, exactly what she used to dream of. Waking in bed with the love of his life and their baby curled up with them.

But it is so, so wrong. Leah is not asleep, she is unconscious. The baby is a stranger. He is engaged to her cousin. And another man in the next room is infatuated with her.

Sam is actually surprised that he hasn't felt a strong pull to return to Emily. He hasn't been this far apart from her since he imprinted. He expects it to cause pain in his chest, but it does not. Perhaps it is because she, too, is worried about Leah, and wants him to be here right now. He wonders for a moment what would happen if he never went home. Could he stay in Seattle with Leah? Make the life he always wanted with her? Or would his imprint drag him home? Is that what the imprint is for? To tie him to the reservation so he can never leave?

Sam grasps her hand with both of his own, glad for this moment with her even if she is not present with him. His wolf, for once, is silent. He leans over to kiss her forehead, and once he has done so cannot help but brush his lips over her closed eyes, her nose, her cheeks, and her parted, full lips. And there he lingers until his face is wet with tears.

She is slipping away from him in every way possible. He can feel it. The girl he loved with all his heart, he destroyed her, the betrayal of her best friend destroyed her, her own wolf destroyed her, the death of her father destroyed her, and whatever pieces of her are left are coalescing into a woman who wants nothing to do with him. And even she might not remain. There is a heartbeat here, there is warmth and breath and life. But for how much longer? She is slipping away. Her spirit is here, but only because Jacob called her back. Were it not for that, she would already be gone. And even if she wakes, even if her broken body can be fixed, he now understands. She will use her newfound strength to walk away from him.

When she goes, what will be left of him? Who will remain? This echo of the person he used to be? As long as she holds him in her heart, even from a distance, the core of him cannot disappear. But no one else remembers him. He hardly remembers himself. Without her, he will be lost.

He loves her. He understands this now. He will love her more truly than he will ever love any other woman. But somehow, he doesn't love her enough to keep her, yet he loves her too much to let her go.

The moment is broken when Sophia starts to stir. She looks up with sleep-bleary eyes, then scoots up the bed and pats Leah's cheek with her chubby hand. "Puppy?" she asks.

"Puppy's still asleep," Sam explains, momentarily amused at Leah's new moniker. It will probably be Leah's new nickname in the pack. Or it will be if she recovers. She'll hate it.

Her father appears in the doorway. "Yes, honey. Puppy got an owie. Her name is Leah, and she got hurt helping us. Remember?"

"Owie," the little girl says plaintively, then sticks her arms up, reaching for her father. When she is close enough, she starts patting his mouth with her hands, then points at Leah.

Miguel laughs. "You want me to kiss it better?" She nods solemnly, so Miguel answers, "I don't think that will make it better, sweetheart."

"Puppy!" she demands.

So Miguel obligingly leans over and kisses Leah's forehead. Of course, nothing happens, and Sophia looks disappointed. "A doctor is coming to help fix her owie, Soph. Let's go change your diaper and get some breakfast, okay? You want some, Sam?"

He shakes his head, unwilling to leave Leah. He doesn't know how long this will last. At any moment, his imprint could drag him away from her side again. He isn't going to go until he has to. He ends up nodding off again, still holding her hand.

Jacob, too, falls asleep. He hasn't even gotten the short nap that most everyone else has had since he took Miguel to the hospital, so as soon as he finishes his breakfast, he leans his head down into Bella's lap, stretches out on the couch as best he can, and begins to snore. Bella runs her fingers through his hair and watches the worry lines fade from his face.

Rachel leans against the wall with a cup of coffee. "What are you thinking about?"

"I can't believe he's only seventeen," Bella answers.

Rachel smiles. "Maybe. This is the same boy who used to chase Becca and me around with a handful of worms in his hand."

"I remember. I loved that boy, although at the time, in a very sisterly way. But he grew up, didn't he?"

"More than most people ever have to in their whole lives."

Sue says quietly from the kitchen, "He's extraordinary. No matter how old he is." Her face is drawn and tired, but her eyes soften looking at Jacob. If it weren't for Jacob's quick actions, Seth would have died months ago at Edward's hand, and Leah would already be gone. "I know he wanted a different life. But he's so good at this one."

Bella leans down to kiss his brow. He has given her so many gifts. Life, happiness, warmth, devotion, and love. She knows he wants to be able to give her more, but what else could she possibly need? He wants her to be able to leave, to go wherever she wants, and he wants to go with her. She once thought it would be a sacrifice to stay with him. She thought she would be giving up too much, too many experiences, too many adventures. She now knows she could travel the world a hundred times over, live a thousand years, dive to the depths of the ocean and climb the highest mountains, could gain riches beyond imagining, gather power of immeasurable magnitude, but if he was not by her side, it would all be worth nothing.

Rachel sees the way Bella looks at Jacob. It is the same way he has always looked at her. "You really love him."

It isn't a question. Bella simply nods and keeps running her fingers through his hair.

Three hours later, Carlisle arrives. He gives polite but brief greetings to everyone before going to the bedroom where Leah still lies unconscious with Sam at her side. He rechecks her vitals, listens to her heart and lungs, feels her abdomen, and checks her pupils and reflexes. Then he turns to Jacob and Miguel to hear what, exactly, happened to Leah. Afterward, he frowns and bends his ear to her head, listening in several different places and tapping her skull.

"What are you doing?" Sue asks. Rosalie looks just as perplexed as she does. Neither one of them has ever seen such an examination.

"Listening to figure out where the blood is."

"You can tell by doing that?"

He shrugs. "You must remember that I've been a doctor since well before the advent of radiology. Without a CT scan, this is the best I can do. In this particular case, my heightened senses help quite a bit. I would never suggest such a technique to a human physician. Rose, come here." He shows her exactly what he hears, the subtle distinction between the sound from tapping her skull in an area without bleeding underneath versus with it.

"What is it?" Sam asks.

"Bleeding between the brain and the skull. A large pocket, I think. It is pressing on her brain."

Seth wants to know, "Will she heal it? I mean, we all heal really fast. I even healed after Edward broke my spine."

Carlisle shakes his head. "I suspect that her accelerated healing in this case is both a blessing and a curse. The bleeding might well have been worse without it. But with it, the internal wounds have healed to the point that the blood will probably have no mechanism of escape. My guess is that the blood is entirely trapped."

"Neurosurgery?" Sue asks, a deep frown on her face.

"I can only give you an educated guess without proper imaging, but yes. I think if we were in the hospital she would receive a craniotomy."

"And if the blood does not drain?"

Carlisle says very gently, "She might remain in this coma indefinitely. Were she a human, she would certainly die without the surgery."

Jacob says very quietly from the hallway, "Screw the secret. Leah gets what she needs. Let's take her to the hospital."

Carlisle cautions, "I'm afraid it might not be so simple. It isn't simply a matter of allowing a team to perform a procedure on her. Her metabolism is so different, her healing so accelerated, that a surgeon, an anesthetist, would not know what to do with her. Remember what happened when you first cut into her skin?" he turns to Rachel.

"It healed almost immediately."

"Exactly. They wouldn't even know where to begin."

"So what," Sam snarls, "We just let her die? Not an option!"

"Of course not." Carlisle turns back to Sue. "It is highly unorthodox, but I would like to suggest that we try to relieve the pressure ourselves."

Sue sways in place. "Oh. Oh."

"A burr hole?" Rosalie asks.

Carlisle nods, while everyone else is confused. Seth just asks, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Dr. Cullen is going to drill a hole into your sister's head to let the blood escape."

Miguel nods. "Like Rachel did with her lung last night, right?"

"Yes, exactly," Carlisle looks oddly pleased with Miguel's assessment.

"Only this is her brain!" Sam looks horrified.

Rosalie answers, "Which is why she needs the pressure relieved. She might have permanent brain damage if we can't get the pressure off her brain. And if the blood pocket pushes her brainstem over far enough, it could just kill her altogether."

"But I didn't need surgery," Seth protests, referring to his vertebral fractures from several months ago.

"You didn't have this kind of bleeding on your brain," Rosalie clarifies.

Sue ends the discussion. "Do it. Just do it, and let her wake up," she says firmly.

"Are you serious?" Sam asks. "What are you going to do, get an electric drill and just go at her skull right here on the bed?"

Carlisle coughs unnecessarily. "Actually, that's not far off."

"You have to be kidding me!" Sam yells. He finally lets go of Leah's hand and stands, fuming, pushing himself up to stand only inches from the doctor. "You're going to kill her!"

Rosalie flashes to Carlisle's side, prepared to defend him from the volatile shifter. Carlisle gently pulls her back. "I will try to do the opposite," he responds calmly.

"Try? That's not good enough! How are you supposed to see where you're going?"

"I will have to use my best judgement, and yes, it will be an educated guess. But I can hear where the pocket is, approximately."

"Approximately?" Sam yells, incredulous. "No! Her life is at stake!"

Jacob warns, "Sam, you aren't helping."

Sam clenches his fist and turns to Jacob. He looks like he might start weeping at any second. "She shouldn't even be here! She belongs back in La Push, not screwing around in Seattle with strangers!"

"Enough!" Sue snaps. "I've had it up to here with you, Sam Uley." She gestures at the level of her head. "You gave up every right you ever had to even ask about my daughter, let alone dictate where she should and should not go. I've tolerated you for the sake of her feelings for you, and for the feelings you used to have for her. But no longer."

Sam looks anguished. "But I... But I..."

"I can't believe I'm delaying my daughter's care for this, but are you leaving Emily?" Sue demands.

Sam can do nothing but stare at her, mouth agape. His mind is frozen. Can he do it? Can he leave Emily? But he takes too long to answer. Sue, disgusted, points at the door. "I didn't think so. So get out. For that matter, everyone who isn't performing brain surgery on my daughter, get out."

Sam doesn't make it past the living room. Sue probably wants him to go home to La Push, or at least get out of the apartment. But he will not leave until he looks in her eyes. Just one more time.

X-x-x-x-X

Carlisle ends up using a sharp drill bit to bore a small hole in Leah's skull. But rather than use an electric drill, he wields the instrument himself, spinning it almost faster than the eye can see between his nimble fingers. Rosalie and Jacob remain in the room to hold down Leah in case she moves, but she does not. Sue, normally used to observing and performing medical treatments herself, is unable to watch such a thing done to her daughter, so she and Seth stay huddled together in the corner of the bedroom.

The entire thing only takes about thirty minutes from start to finish. Carlisle quickly enters the pocket of blood, idly mentioning to Sue and Rosalie, "Looks like it was a subdural hematoma. It's draining now." He actually has to use the bit to keep her flesh from healing over the hole too quickly, as it keeps trying to close before all the blood is drained. But soon the pressure is relieved, and he allows the brain's dura matter to close. Within twenty minutes the skin is entirely healed over, and but for the tiny missing patch of hair, it is impossible to tell that anything was amiss by looking at her skin.

"When will she wake up?" Seth asks.

Carlisle just shrugs. "We'll find out, I suppose."

No one leaves, although Jacob and Seth are missing school and Rachel had to call in sick to two of the classes she leads. Even Alice stays unobtrusively in the corner of the kitchen. Jacob keeps Bella tucked closely into his side. He has done everything he can and can only hope that it is enough. Bella doesn't mind his closeness at all. On the contrary, she craves it. She is terrified for her friend, and no one can provide comfort better than he can.

In the late afternoon, the phone rings. Rachel answers, "Hello?" without checking the caller ID. "Yes, this is Rachel." She scowls and holds the phone out toward Sam. "Sam? Sam, it's for you."

He doesn't move, so Rachel cocks a confused eyebrow and says, "He's busy at the moment." Then a pause. "No, she's not." Another pause. "No, he's not." She purses her lips as she listens. "Well, sorry just doesn't cut it. She doesn't need your worthless apologies, and I for one don't have any obligation to listen to them." And she immediately hangs up.

An odd glance passes between Jacob and Seth. Bella asks, "Who was that?"

"Emily," Jacob whispers in response.

Then Bella looks at Sam, and she understands their confusion. It looks like he didn't even register that his imprint called for an update. Rachel mutters under her breath, "She has a lot of fucking nerve. Wanted to know if Leah is okay, and you heard me say she's not. Then she wanted to know if Sam's okay and on his way home. Said she was sorry about what happened and she wanted Leah to know that. She seems to think the sun revolves around her head or something, like she's the center of the universe. I couldn't stand to talk to her any longer."

Bella says nothing. She knows Rachel has no respect for Emily. Rachel probably cut her off before she could really say much of anything, but the last person anyone here wants to hear from is Emily Young. Apparently even Sam, by the look on his face. His gaze is fixated at the wall opposite him. If he had x-ray vision, she would think he was looking right at Leah on the other side.

Miguel had reluctantly left with Sophia in the early afternoon. He had to go to his pub, and his sister was expecting to watch the little girl. Sam had relaxed perceptibly in his absence. He doesn't want to compete with the other man for Leah's attentions when she wakes.

But Leah doesn't wake up that day.

Alice and Rosalie reluctantly leave when they realize everyone else wants to try to sleep, getting a suite at a nearby hotel. Jacob and Bella, feeling as if they are crowding Leah's family, end up using the suite's bed, while in the living area, Rose and Alice are unable to rest. Bella and Jacob unconsciously cling to each other all night long. Carlisle stays to monitor Leah. Seth passes out on the recliner in the living room. Rachel lays blankets and pillows on what floor space remains in her living room and is soon asleep. And as soon as Sue falls asleep on the pull-out couch, Sam heads back into the bedroom.

He lies down by Leah's uninjured side, and he stares over at her. He runs his fingers down the side of her face. Her skin is just as warm as his, but so much more supple. He buries his hand in her thick hair, now soft and clean smelling since Sue had tenderly used a basin of water and Rachel's shampoo to wash it free of blood after her surgery. He trails his fingers down her long neck, across her delicate clavicles, and down her arm. He twines his fingers with hers, and tears slip out of his eyes.

Sue is right. He shouldn't be here unless he is willing to leave Emily. About an hour before she called, he had felt a tugging sensation in his gut and a pain in his chest. He knows exactly what this is. His imprint calling him home. He ignored it. For the first time ever, he refused. He won't leave Leah, not now. It is much too little, much too late. He knows this. But what is important to him is here in this room, and he will not leave.

He will go if she tells him to. She deserves to hear what truly lies in his heart. She deserves to know, and then she deserves to decide what will happen. He owes her much more, but this is all he has left to give.

Sam gathers Leah in his arms and falls deeply asleep.

X-x-x-x-X

"Uhhh," Leah groans. She reaches for her head, which is pounding. She pries her eyes open to see a vaguely familiar bedroom, then blinks uncertainly at the IV in her arm before registering the warm body against hers. It is the same temperature as hers. What's going on?

She rolls over and her breath hitches in her chest as she looks directly into the warm brown eyes of Sam Uley. He is staring at her with an inscrutable expression. Is she dead? She should be dead. She remembers getting killed by a vampire. So what is Sam doing here? Is this some bizarre version of heaven? Or Hell?

Sam pulls her into a tight hug. "You're okay," he breathes into her neck.

She moves as little as possible. Okay, so she's not dead. She is apparently okay. So what is she doing lying in bed with Sam Uley with an IV in her arm? Has the last year been some terrible dream? She is startled out of her reverie by the feeling of wet tears falling on her bare skin. Sam is trembling and crying. She has no idea what to do, so she just reassures him, "I'm okay," in a raspy voice, even though she isn't sure it is true.

"I thought I lost you forever, Lee Lee." He shakes and holds her.

"What happened?" she finally asks, and he releases her just slightly, allowing her to fall back among the pillows. He leans above her on one elbow and threads the other hand through her hair.

"What do you remember?"

"A blonde vamp," she begins. "I was trying to save a man and his baby. But I failed." Panic rises. What happened to the baby girl?

"No, no. You saved them. They'll probably come by to see you today. They're fine."

"How?"

"You nearly took her head off. Then Jacob came in spirit form. Apparently he can control all the elements, not just wind. Rachel provided a spark of fire for him. He turned the spark into a huge flame and set the leech on fire. Everyone's fine but you. Your lung collapsed and you had bleeding on your brain. Rachel helped you out, and Dr. Cullen drained the blood."

"I'm in Rachel's apartment?" Now things make sense, mostly. Except for the fact that she is in bed with Sam Uley.

"Yeah."

She takes a deep breath. "What are you doing here?"

"I was worried."

"So is Seth, I'm guessing. But he's not in bed with me right now."

"I needed to hold you," he admits. Odd that he is able to say it now. He is used to such declarations being strangled before they can be spoken. It isn't because Emily has freed him. The imprint pull is strong, calling him home. He is simply not obeying its call.

"Mission accomplished. You can let go now." She tries to ignore how good it feels to be back in his arms again. How naturally her body molds into his. How the look in his eye is one she hasn't seen since he imprinted on Emily.

He doesn't move. "Not yet." His gaze pierces her. "I have something to say first."

Leah doubts she wants to hear what he has to say, but she can sense that he feels he has to get this off his chest no matter what. So she braces herself for more heartbreak.

He feels her stiffen in his arms, and he aches to think that nothing he ever says to her anymore brings her anything but pain.

"Go ahead," she concedes.

He takes a deep breath. "I understand now. I understand what I did. What she did. You already know I'm sorry, and that I know I don't deserve your forgiveness." She starts to shake her head, in protest or in exasperation he is not sure, but he keeps going before she can stop him. "And I'm not asking for you to grant it to me. I just need you to know that I see what we did to you. You deserved better from both of us."

Leah looks right at him, and she sees that he really does finally understand. This isn't the first apology she has received from him, not by a long shot, but it is the first one that means anything. Because the regret he expresses is pure. Before, he regretted that he hurt her, regretted that Emily hurt her, but believed there was never any other way. He pitied her pain but nothing more.

Now he sees. Now he sees what he did to her, what Emily did to her, and that there was nothing right about any of it. His relationship with Emily is not the flawless, perfect thing he imagined. It isn't even real. It is powerful, yes, overwhelming and addictive. But it is not love.

He destroyed his true love for something else entirely. And he doesn't even know why.

"Fine," she answers softly. "So you understand."

"Not just that." His voice is fierce and low. "I told you the other day that I'm still in love with you. You know that I meant it. And I'm ready now."

"Ready for what?" she asks, confused, trying to ignore away the automatic flush of heat on her cheeks when she feels his breath on her skin.

His voice is choked. "You owe me nothing. But I will stay with you if you will have me. I just won't go back. We can make the life we always wanted." He releases one of his arms from her waist to run his thumb along her bottom lip, and her breath catches, her heart skipping and stuttering in her chest. "I love you. I'll never love any other woman the way I love you. You're the only one who knows me. The only one who ever could. The only one who remembers the dreams we used to have, the things we wanted to do. You were everything I always wanted. And you still are." He is barely audible. A normal human would not be able to hear him at all.

She looks at him and sees what he does not want to say. She sees what the words cost him. What he will not admit to, not when he came so close to losing her forever, not when she is about to walk away for good. Sam is in pain. She sees it in the sweat beading on his brow, the tense set of his shoulders, his unnecessarily heaving breaths.

She gently removes his hands from her skin and rolls over to reach for Rachel's bedside phone. He frowns at her, not understanding what she is doing. She calmly dials Emily's number, not noticing the tears running down her own cheeks.

"Rachel? Is that you?" Emily asks, frantic. Leah looks at Sam. His eyes are wide and his body frozen. "Hello? Rachel? Sam?"

Leah hangs up the phone as his body tenses. He claws at Rachel's sheets with the effort not to run straight home to Emily at the sound of his name in her pleading voice. "I love you too, Sam," Leah whispers. "I always will. Your heart was my heart once, and I know what it feels like right now. Tell me. The truth, now. I already know it, but you need to say it. You need to understand." She places her hand directly above his heart, touching the warm, smooth skin tenderly. "Tell me how it feels."

"It hurts," he whispers.

"Why do you think that is?" she asks, tears pooling on the pillow under her cheek.

"Because I'm fighting the imprint. I'm fighting it for you."

"I don't want you to." She is barely audible, even to his wolf's ears.

"But you're worth it! What I feel for you is real, and what I feel for her isn't, and you are worth fighting for!" His face is a mask of pain, both physical and emotional.

She closes her eyes, unable to look at him any more. "If you had figured that out any earlier..."

"I'm so sorry. Please don't say it's too late." She doesn't see it, but his eyes are filled with tears as well.

She takes a shaking breath. "But it is too late. And I won't have you hurting like this. I told you already. She isn't going to let you go. Do you see? It will only tear you in half, drag you down, and you're taking me with you. I won't do it. I won't let you drag me down any further, and I won't let you hurt this way."

"No, please," he whispers.

"It's too late. She's too deeply in love with you. If you had figured this out before she completely gave her heart to you, she might have been able to let you go the way Rachel did for Paul. But you didn't, and she did, and she has all the power, and now it's too late for us."

"Do you really call it love? What she feels for me?" he begs.

She laughs darkly through her sobs. "No, I suppose not. Lust, obsession, addiction, delusion, fantasy, call it whatever you want. But she's in too deep." She opens her eyes and looks at him once more. "I'm sorry, Sam. This isn't what I want for you. I do love you, I've loved you since I was a child, and I always will. I want better for you. I want real happiness for you. I do. But I can't give it go you." She starts to push him away from her with the hand she has on his heart. "She won't let me, and while I was waiting around for you to take off the blinders, I moved on. I'm sorry, but I did. I had to if I wanted to survive with any pieces of my heart intact. So you need to go. You need to leave me alone. If you love me at all anymore, you'll leave me alone. Because this way, you're tearing me apart right along with you. So please. I need you to go, and I need not to see you anymore."

Sam reaches down to twine his fingers with hers. The pain in his chest is excruciating. Because it isn't just him fighting his imprint anymore. His true heart breaks as well. He has lost his one true love, and lost her for good. He brings her hand to his lips to kiss each of her fingers. "I'll always love you. And I'll always be grateful for what we did have, and that at least I got to experience what it's like to be in love with you and have you love me back. It was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I'll never forgive myself for ruining that. For breaking your heart. But I will never, ever fall out of love with you. I don't have it in me." He takes a deep breath. "But I'll do what you want," he whispers. And then she pulls her hands away and turns her back to him.

Seth appears in the doorway as Sam slowly rises from the bed. He glowers at his former Alpha. "You're not welcome here anymore. I don't care where you go or what you do. But if you bother her one more time, I'm going to kill you."

Sam says nothing. The boy means it quite literally. He doesn't meet the angry eyes of Sue standing in the hallway behind Seth, nor the pitying glance of Carlisle. Rachel stands by the front door, holding it wide open. She couldn't hear their whispered conversation, but she knows enough. "Go home and tell Emily what she ruined. Tell her how you really feel. If you're lucky, maybe she'll let you go. It's what you should have done in the first place instead of torturing Leah. You keep begging the wrong person to fix things for you, and all you're doing is making it impossible for her to be truly happy. So go and end things with Emily. But afterward? Don't you dare come back here. Leah doesn't want you anymore, and she deserves better than you."

She slams the door shut behind him, and he does not return.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my beta, Babs81410.


	21. Chapter 20

X-x-x-x-X  
March 20  
X-x-x-x-X

Leah dries her tears when Sam is gone, and Sue wraps her arms around her daughter. "I shouldn't have let him stay here."

"It's okay, mom. Just don't let him come back, okay?"

"I won't let him," Seth answers. "Or Em, for that matter. Last resort, we can ask Jake to alpha order him to stay away."

Carlisle enters the room. "How are you feeling, dear?"

"Like I got hit by a bus. My head's the worst," she says, fingering the scar where she is missing a tiny patch of hair. "Did I hear Sam right? You drained some blood off my brain?"

"I'm afraid so. You had a serious injury from the blows to your head."

"So a headache is the least of my problems?"

He nods. "How are your ribs?"

She pushes gingerly at them. "Tender."

"You should thank your friend. She drained the blood and air that was outside your lung, restricting your ability to breathe."

"Rachel did that?"

He smiles. "Maybe she missed her calling going into computer science."

Rachel appears behind him and shudders. "No. I am never doing that again. Is it okay if I call Jake? I'm sure he wants to know you're awake."

Leah agrees, then heads to the bathroom for a hot shower. When she emerges, Jacob is waiting with Bella, Rosalie, and Alice. Jacob can't resist giving her a hug, although he avoids the usual crushing squeeze out of respect for her injuries.

"So you're a dragon now, huh? Werewolf wasn't freaky enough for you?"

Rosalie adds, "Next thing you know, he'll turn into a unicorn."

Leah snorts. "Then Bella can really ride him!"

Bella blushes red, and Seth comes to her rescue. "What are you guys, twelve year old boys?"

"Hey, Leah can make as many inappropriate jokes as she wants. She's awake and talking and that's all that matters," Rosalie smirks. "Even if she's even less mature than Emmett."

Conversation takes an easy turn then, while Rachel leaves for her classes. Seth offers to pick up brunch for everyone, opening the door to reveal Miguel, his hand raised in an aborted knock. Sophia immediately scoots between his legs, around Seth, and jumps onto Leah's lap where she sits on the couch. "Puppy!" she says with a squeal.

Seth snickers, "You're never gonna live that down. I'm only calling you 'Puppy' from now on, and Paul is going to have a field day."

Leah freezes, stunned, with her mouth hanging open. But once the little girl tosses her chubby arms around Leah's neck, she regains motor control, gently returning the child's embrace. "Hi, there. So you're okay, huh?"

"Otay!" the little girl mimics.

"The real question is, are you okay?" Miguel asks.

Leah nods at him with surprise in her eyes. "Yeah. I'm going to be fine."

"So you turned out to be more than the knight in shining armor," he smiles.

"More like the horse the knight rode in on."

He lets out a big belly laugh. "And you're funny too."

"Puppy!" Sophia insists.

"Yes, sweetheart. She's the puppy and she's going to be fine. And thanks to her, you're going to be fine too."

Leah looks to Jacob for an explanation. "Seeing as you had to phase right in front of him, then phased back when Irina knocked you out, I figured there wasn't much point in trying to keep things a secret any longer. I told him about the pack while you were out."

She turns back to Miguel. "I'm guessing you didn't guess giant, hairy dog when you decided I was mysterious. Not quite as alluring as I might have been trying to pull off in your pub the other night."

Miguel flushes, thinking not of her wolf form but of picking up her nude body and carrying her upstairs. He was distracted by the desperation of the situation, of course, but it isn't as if it rendered him blind. Leah is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He coughs. "Good thing I'm a dog person and not a cat person, then."

Leah laughs at his lame attempt at a joke, and he finds himself mesmerized by her smile. "So now that I know your big secret, how about letting me in on a lesser one?"

"What do you mean?"

"Can I have your number?" he asks with a little sheepish smile on his face.

She cocks an eyebrow. "You sure you still want it?"

"Are you kidding me? There's no way I can pay you back for what you did for me and Sophia, but you can at least let me take you to dinner in thanks."

"That's gonna cost you more than you think it will. I eat a lot."

"Good. Me too. So how many meals will it take to pay you back for saving our lives? One hundred? One thousand? Cooking you dinner every night for the rest of your life?" He says it with a joking smile on his face, but he's pretty sure he means it. He barely knows Leah Clearwater, but there's something about her that pulls him in. And it has nothing to do with her giant secret. He catches Sue's bemused look from the corner of his eye. "C'mon. Your mom thinks you should go out with me."

"Well, in that case," Leah agrees. She notes Sue's pleased grin out of the corner of her eye.

"Puppy," Sophia sighs happily, snuggling closer into Leah and sucking her thumb.

"See, Sophia thinks so too. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be letting her climb on you like that after what you went through."

Leah strokes the girl's hair unconsciously. "It's okay, she's sweet. And I'm a quick healer."

"I can't believe she's this affectionate right off the bat. She's usually very shy with strangers."

"And she ought to be afraid of giant, deadly werewolves."

"She might be shy, but she's a good judge of character. Started wailing the second she saw that... that thing that nearly killed us."

Carlisle interrupts. "Have you ever seen Irina before?"

"Irina?"

"The vampire that attacked you. What happened?"

"Oh, no. I'd have recognized seeing her before. I thought she was an albino for a second. I was just picking Soph up from my sister. We were in the lobby about to go when she popped her head out of the stairwell entrance and asked me to help her keep the door open. So I went over, of course, and as soon as I got close, she grabbed Sophie and ran down the stairs. She was quick. So quick I barely even had a chance to figure out if they went up or down. I chased them down into the basement, begging for her back. I followed her into the room where Leah found us. She had Sophie by the neck, was hanging her midair. I've never been so scared in my life."

"Did she say anything?"

"She said it was nothing personal. Said we were just bait. I couldn't figure out what the hell she was talking about until after."

"She must have been looking to pick off Paul," Jacob answers darkly. "Her eyes were still golden, Carlisle. She hadn't been feeding on humans. But she has been tracking us, searching the peninsula away from the Rez. I found her scent around the holidays. She was the one who went through your house. Same one Collin found driving along the Sound. I explored for a while and figured out she had been searching Port Angeles. I don't know if she was actually looking for Leah, Bella, or both of them."

"I'll bet she's been staking out this place for a while," Seth adds. "Probably sitting out in her car so he wouldn't smell her."

Rosalie shakes her head angrily. "I knew she was mad about Laurent, but I never thought she'd actually come after you guys. If for no other reason than that you outnumber her by so many."

"She knew she couldn't take on the pack, but she thought she had a shot one on one. I'm surprised she didn't try you in Port Angeles," Seth tells Leah.

"She must have been waiting to fight Paul since he comes out here alone so often," Leah nods. "but she got me instead."

"And she didn't take into account Jake's powers," Bella adds, squeezing into the room.

"She didn't know about them," Jacob says. "Hell, I didn't know I could do that."

"The thing with the fire?" Seth looks awed. "That was amazing."

Now Jacob looks sheepish. "Well, yeah. I guess. I couldn't do it without there already being some fire nearby, though."

"This is insane. Is every myth true? Do you guys know any elves or Sasquatch or anything?" Miguel asks, only half joking. Carlisle looks pointedly away, but refuses to elaborate when they press him.

Jacob looks at Rosalie. "Don't tell anyone about my powers, please. I don't need it to be common knowledge in the vampire world."

She agrees to say nothing, of course, and returns to the subject of Irina. "I am so sorry about Irina. We thought we had calmed her down. We had no idea she was so angry."

Jacob frowns again. "She said something before she died. Before she knocked out Leah. Said it was too late, that someone was still coming for us."

Rosalie pulls out her phone. "Did she say who?"

"No. Nothing else."

Rosalie makes her way through the crowd to the kitchen, where Alice sits at the table staring straight ahead with a blank expression on her face.

"This can't be good," Seth mutters when he sees her.

Slowly Alice come out of her daze. She shakes her head to clear it. "I don't know," she begins anxiously.

"Were you looking for the Denali sisters?" Rosalie asks.

"Yes. I was looking into Kate's future, and Tanya's as well."

"And?" Bella asks.

"It's too hard to see," she stares at the table. She wrings her hands nervously.

Rosalie narrows her eyes. "So it involves the wolves."

Alice refuses to look up. She will not look anyone in the eye. "It must, yes."

"But something's wrong. What is it?" Rosalie demands.

"I don't know. I can't tell. I wish I could, but the wolves block it."

Rosalie pulls out the kitchen chair and sits down across from Alice. She tugs her wringing hands apart and forces Alice to look at her. "But you can see something. I know you can. You have to tell them. It might help."

Alice looks up, agonized. "If I can't tell them what's going to happen or when, how is that going to help?"

"Now you have to, Alice. I get it. It's bad. But whatever it is, you need to tell us now," Jacob insists.

Alice squeezes her eyes shut, and suddenly, Jacob pities her. Alice's gift is really a curse. She whispers low enough that the humans don't hear her. "I see a dingy, windowless room. I don't know where it is. It's empty except for shackles and it's..." she trails off.

"What?" Bella prompts.

"It's covered in blood."

X-x-x-x-X

Alice is unable to give them any useful information, just as she warned. The Cullens discuss sending Alice and Esme to Alaska to find Tanya, but Alice sees that no matter how they decide to travel, they will be delayed by snowstorms in Alaska. Even if they decide to run to Denali, they will not get there before Tanya leaves. Alice can see Kate's future. It is crystal clear that she will not have any involvement with the wolves, but neither will she do anything to help. Tanya, however, knows enough about Alice's talents that she knows how to evade them. Alice only gets two visions of her. In the first, she is in Volterra seeking audience with Aro and Caius, but does not appear to gain access even to make her appeal. Carlisle explains that they have had such difficulty holding together their power base since the disappearance of Jane, Chelsea, and Felix and the loss of Marcus that they probably cannot afford to pay attention to appeals for petty vengeance. It is widely suspected that the remnants of the Romanian coven, Stefan and Vladimir, who were overthrown by the Volturi centuries ago, are going to make some kind of attempt against them. No one seems to know what it might be.

The only other vision that Alice gets shows Tanya standing in what looks like an old chapel that none of the Cullens recognize. There is no way to know what continent it is on, let alone exactly where it is. Distraught, she returns to New Hampshire with Carlisle later that night.

Rachel and Miguel try to convince Leah to stay in Seattle another night, but she is eager for her own bed, so after enjoying a rather messy lunch with Sophia, Leah allows Rosalie to drive her home. Sue extends an invitation to Rosalie, and she agrees, as Emmett doesn't plan to come to Seattle until the following week to look for an apartment.

Rosalie and Leah are the first to return to La Push due to Rosalie's ridiculously fast driving. When she spots her mother's house in the distance, Leah gets a sudden pang of nostalgia. This is the only home she has ever known, the house she grew up in. It is the place where she took her first steps as a baby, where her mother placed her little brother in her small arms for the first time. Harry built the front porch himself, the same porch where Sam stood to ask her on their first date. Sue sewed the curtains hanging in the window. She fell in love in that house, got engaged in that house, and had her heart broken in that house. Her human life ended in the living room when she phased for the first time, killing her father with the shock of it. Nearly every important event of her life occurred in that space. And she realizes as she approaches it that she has already started to say goodbye to it. She is ready for the next stage of her life, and that will be in Seattle. She doesn't know what it will entail, who will join her on the journey, or where it will take her, only that what is around the corner could only be better than what has come before.

And then she spots the figure waiting in the shadow of the porch.

"Is that her?" Rosalie asks.

Leah sighs, "Yeah."

Rosalie deadpans, "Want me to drain her? I don't kill people for blood. Only for revenge."

This brings a smile to her face. "Next time, maybe."

As Rosalie puts the car in park, she says, "Maybe I'll check on my old house."

"Come back after?"

"I will. Bark if you need me." She smiles and exits the car, disappearing into the trees.

Leah takes her suitcase out of the trunk and pulls it to the front porch.

Emily is wringing her hands. "I was so worried."

"No need." Leah unlocks the door. "We heal fast, remember?"

Emily trails her in. "Still, you need your brain and your lungs, right?"

"Who told you?"

"Kim heard from Jared."

Leah nods and heats a kettle of water for tea, thinking to herself that she should have gotten a couple of roofies from the man she kicked out of Miguel's pub. She could have slipped them into her own drink so she doesn't have to remember having this conversation. Again. "Well, reports of my death are exaggerated."

"But you're okay?"

She is incredibly sore, short of breath, and quite dizzy, but it is none of Emily's concern. "I'll be fine. Why are you here, Em?" She knows Emily's concern for her, while genuine, is the secondary reason for her visit. She can read the anxiety on Emily's face.

"Do you know where Sam is?"

Leah shakes her head. "Not a clue. Last time I saw him was pretty early this morning. Not since."

"Do you know where he went?"

Leah shakes her head again. She is tempted to tell Emily what Sam told her, that he knows he is in love with her and not with his fiancee. A petty part of her wants to rub it in Emily's face, while the honorable part of her feels that Emily deserves to know the truth. The kind and nurturing part of her, lately hidden but not destroyed, wants to protect the girl who used to be her best friend from that heartbreak. But the majority of her just wants Emily to go away.

Emily continues, "Last time I called, Rachel wouldn't tell me anything and wouldn't put him on the phone. And I got a phone call from her number this morning. But it was a hang up. And I haven't heard from him since you got hurt, and I'm starting to get worried."

"I'm sure he's fine," Leah says shortly. She doesn't bother to explain the call was hers. "He can take care of himself."

Emily looks like she is about to cry. "But why isn't he home? Why hasn't he called? He has to know I'm worried about him. Normally he couldn't stand being away from me this long, let alone without a phone call."

"I'm sure he'll be back eventually." And she is. It is one of the biggest reasons she did not allow him to stay with her. She could keep him for minutes, hours, days even. But he would always come back to Emily, so long as she calls him home.

"I thought he was... you were... I thought the two of you..." She trails off.

Leah doesn't answer directly. "I know what that's like. Miserable, isn't it?"

Emily looks mortified. "That was different."

"Very," Leah agrees, although she means it in a different way than Emily does.

"What do I do until he comes back?"

Leah rolls her eyes. "What do you mean? Wait. Teach your classes. Clean the house. Read a book. Learn to knit. Whatever you want."

Emily frowns. This isn't the answer she is looking for. It isn't the comfort she desires. "You know what I mean, Leah."

"You've come to the wrong place for advice, Em. I may have plenty of experience waiting on Sam Uley, but I don't think it will be of much use to you, of all people."

"When is he coming back?"

"No idea."

"Well, you saw him, right?"

"You mean before or after I woke up from my coma?" she snaps.

"I'm sorry," Emily says miserably. "I'm being insensitive. Are you in pain? How are you healing?"

"You don't really care to know, and I don't really care to say. No need to prolong the unpleasantries. Sam's either already on his way or he wants some time to himself. Either way, you get to wait for him to come back."

Emily huffs. "I don't know if I can wait for him here. The looks are just too much sometimes."

Leah knows to what Emily refers. Ever since Sam dumped Leah for her, she has taken nasty looks and gossiping behind her back from plenty of locals. It died down as time went by, but everyone has seen the looks Sam has been throwing Leah as of late, and the gossip has returned full force. "So go hide up in your cabin up north or ignore it. Those are your two choices."

Emily looks at her hands. "We were going to go away there together. It's where we're supposed to be right now. He took the whole weekend off from work, even."

Leah's patience is worn thin. "I know. I'm the one who agreed to take his patrols, remember? Would have if I hadn't almost died."

Emily's expression crumples. "I know. I'm sorry. I was going to take that time and figure out if we should stay together or not."

Leah rolls her eyes again, but this time Emily doesn't notice. "If you hadn't already decided to let him go, you weren't going to figure it out with a romantic getaway."

"I don't know how to be without him. I just don't know what to do," Emily whispers.

Leah stands. "You'll have to figure it out without my help. I'm not going to be a part of this anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm moving as soon as the quarter is over."

Emily looks equal parts relieved and dismayed. "Why?"

"I got into UDub."

"Wow, congratulations!" And this time Emily's smile is genuine. "Good for you!"

"Yeah. Thanks. But you need to talk to Sam. Not to me."

Emily's expression falls again. "I don't know what to say. What to do. I love him, Leah."

"You love the image of Sam. The idea. And because you're his imprint, he can be that for you. Be whatever you want. Whomever you want. That's what you love," Leah says softly.

Emily begins to cry. "But in his heart, he still loves you?"

Leah just stares at Emily evenly. Emily already knows.

"I want what's best for him."

"Really?" Leah narrows her eyes, and Emily nods vigorously. But Leah doesn't believe her for a second. "Then you should talk with him. Not to him, with him. But you need to figure something out first. Do you or do you not want the truth out of him? He'll tell you whatever you want to hear whether it's true or not. So you've got to decide if you want the truth, and if so, you have to mean it." Leah opens the front door. "Stop fucking with him, Em." Emily silently exits, giving a sad nod over her shoulder to Leah. "And stop fucking with me. You've forfeited your right to come to me for comfort." Leah shuts the door shut firmly.

X-x-x-x-X

Bella doesn't see Jacob at all on Friday. He takes a double shift after school in order to make up for the one he missed on Wednesday, continuing straight through until morning. After that, he gets a few hours of sleep, but then has to study without the distraction of Bella around. He had missed two tests and a pile of homework while he was in Seattle, and he still has to finish his project with Jasmine. The upcoming tribal school spring break will also be a busy time despite so many of the boys being on vacation; Embry and Seth leave on their spirit quest on Saturday and are out of the patrol rotation for the duration of the week, and Leah is not supposed to phase yet.

Instead, Leah, Bella, and Rosalie have a girls' night at Leah's house on Saturday night. Rosalie arrives with her version of a chick flick marathon, Kill Bill and the Alien movies. Sue eats dinner with them before leaving for an overnight shift, so they have the house to themselves.

"I'm so glad you didn't bring The Notebook," Leah says.

"Ugh. If I have to watch that one more time, I'm going to lose my mind. Alice and Edward used to watch that all the time."

"Most pathetic vampires ever," Leah mutters.

As they watch Uma Thurman duel against Lucy Liu with Samurai swords, Bella whips up a batch of her spicy drinking chocolate. "Mmm," Leah hums. "This is why I'm friends with you now."

"It's not due to my sparkling personality?"

"We're cool as long as your personality sparkles instead of your skin, Bella" Rosalie interjects.

Leah glances sidelong at Rosalie. "May I just say that the whole glitter thing looks rather flattering on you, but that butch husband of yours looks like he fell into a vat of body glitter. Seems like a shitty adaptation for a predator."

Rosalie shrugs. "We have so few weaknesses, it's probably a good thing we stick out like sore thumbs."

"You certainly wiped out the animal population while you lived here. It's a good thing we never let you hunt on the Rez. Otherwise there would be no wildlife left except rodents and bats."

"And feral cats. I hate cats."

"Kim's cat is afraid of us. It flips out every time Jared comes around, which is all the time, obviously. Poor thing's probably going to die of a heart attack."

"Good," Rosalie smiles wickedly. "The fewer cats there are in the world, the better."

"How're they doing with the whole Rachel, Paul, Elle thing?" Bella asks. "I mean, Sam and Emily obviously had second thoughts about the way they got together."

Leah shrugs. "It's not like Kim ever talks to me, and if she did, I doubt she'd tell me anything about that. But the little I've seen into Jared's mind when he takes over patrol from me makes me think not much has changed. I mean, Jared dated before Kim, but never seriously. And she's, um, expanded his horizons. Not dissimilarly to the way our Alpha showed Bella here a whole new world."

"Ooh," Rosalie perks up. "Do tell."

"Leah!" Bella chides and blushes.

Leah snickers at her. "Please, Swan. You're such a nympho." She turns back to Rose. "Turns out Bella likes to be tied down."

"Ah," Rosalie nods. "So does Emmett. Although it's a little hard to find anything strong enough to hold him."

"Yes, but Bella likes to be tied to other people's furniture. Not even hers or Jake's, although Jake's bed will do in a pinch."

"Shut up!" Bella buries her face in her hands as Leah and Rosalie laugh.

"Honey, if you're gonna have sex on someone else's kitchen table, you have to take the consequences. Although maybe I should thank you. We started having pack meetings in other places after that, not just Sam's house, since no one wanted to eat off that table."

"It wasn't my choice of venue," Bella mutters into her hands.

"No? How about my brother's bedroom on New Year's Eve, or the lounge in the community center the next day?"

Rosalie looks at Bella with an appraising glance. "Wow, Bella. Didn't know you had it in you. My goodness, old stick-in-the-mud Edward couldn't have handled you. You would have ripped him to shreds, human or vampire."

Bella finally looks up. "Oh, I admit I wanted to have sex with Edward when we were together. But it wouldn't have been like this."

"What do you mean?"

"I need a drink stronger than chocolate if we're going to keeping having this conversation." She is joking, but Leah obliges anyway, going to the kitchen to mix some lemon drop martinis. She returns with a glass for herself, a glass for Bella, and a pitcher.

"Dear lord, woman, is that a pitcher full of vodka?" Rosalie asks.

"It's pretty hard to get me drunk."

"But what about her?" Rosalie points at Bella.

"She's not supposed to drink it all by herself. Swan, you're supposed to be telling us about sex with Jacob."

Bella sips at her drink and tries to figure out if she should give them a serious answer or not. "Well," she pauses to find the correct words, "being with Jacob isn't about sex."

"Yeah, right!" Leah snorts.

"No, really. It's about being with Jacob. Everything he does with me is just perfect. He knows exactly what feels good. Sex with someone else wouldn't be half as good. Edward didn't even know how to kiss properly, and I'm beginning to think it wasn't just all about the fear of venom or attacking me."

"Was he really a hundred year old virgin?" asks Leah, eyes twinkling, downing her first cocktail in a few smooth gulps.

Rosalie shrugs. "I suppose there's no way to know for sure, but I think so, yes. I was pretty convinced for a long time that he was just gay and in the closet. And before you ask, no, it wasn't just because he didn't want me."

"Is it true that Carlisle turned you so you could be his mate?" Bella asks.

Rosalie scoffs. "Is that what Edward told you? Of course not. He wondered if it might happen, yes. But he found me sexually and physically brutalized and left for dead. If I believed for a second that he turned me in order to give me to a man I didn't know, I'd have killed him too. Carlisle isn't nearly so insensitive. He was just trying to save me. Only Edward was such an egotist to believe that I was turned on his behalf. But he was an odd duck all around. Permanently stuck in the same emotional and mental development, frozen at age seventeen."

"Seventeen, a hundred and five, same difference," Leah shakes her head. "Creepy, really. I'm glad no human ever had sex with him. Anyone but an octogenarian would be so young compared to him. He could have had sex with a sixty year old woman, and it would still be some kind of pedo thing going on. You know, still being forty years older than a grandma? Eww."

Rosalie chides, "Hey, don't throw around the pedo label. Not when one of your own brothers imprinted on a toddler."

Leah frowns. "I know, I know. But he really doesn't have any sexual feelings for her. He's a cool uncle, not a creepy uncle."

"But aren't they going to hook up once she gets older?" Rosalie asks.

"Actually, he's been second guessing that lately. Everyone told him he would at first, so I think he just figured that's the way it is. But I signed out my patrol to him a couple weeks ago and got a peek in his brain. Watching Paul and Rachel made him see that things can be different. He kind of wants to quit phasing before too much time goes by just so he can start aging again. He figures if the age gap stays pretty big between the two of them, in physical appearance as well as actual years, it'll reduce the likelihood that she'll start crushing on him when she goes through puberty. And if she doesn't develop romantic feelings for him, he figures he won't for her either."

"Really?" Bella asks. Jacob hasn't mentioned anything of the sort to her.

Leah nods. "I don't think he wants to tell anybody right now. Between the two vamps we killed this fall, Carlisle telling Jacob about the breakup of the Volturi, all the vamps we know are still in Seattle, and now Irina and Tanya, Quil doesn't want to pull out of his share of the patrol schedule. Plus he's got time, you know? She's still basically a baby."

"Wow, that's really cool of him," Bella nods.

"But I want to hear more about Edward. Why'd he stay a virgin for so long?"

Rosalie answers, "He was afraid of losing control with a human, and rightfully so. Although it would not have been quite such a struggle with anyone who wasn't his singer. More than that, he really did want a virginal blushing bride, I think. That rules out nearly every vampire, particularly when you consider that he wouldn't have taken a mate who drank human blood. He was a true believer in Victorian morals. He was very, very uptight. Repressed. That, combined with his ability to read minds, made women, vampire or human, unattractive to him. Some of them lusted after him too blatantly for his taste, others he found too shallow, unintelligent, or too petty. Really, whose thoughts are meant to be broadcast to the world? Who hasn't had the occasional thought they aren't proud of? What matters is what we do and say, not what we think to ourselves in the privacy of our brains. Edward never understood that."

"Which is why he wanted me," Bella nods and refills her glass.

"Exactly. Not that you're not worthy of male attentions, mind you. Just ask Jacob, Mike, Tyler, any of those guys."

"Don't worry, my self esteem isn't suffering."

Leah smirks. "The way Jacob treats you, the opposite is bound to happen. He worships the ground you walk on, Bella."

"No, Jacob and I just fit together."

"Literally!" Rose snickers. "Sorry, juvenile joke. I can't help it, you left the door wide open." After she and Leah stop laughing, she continues, "But back to Edward, he was intimidated. I mean, he was a virgin, after all. Even if he was attracted enough to someone, interested enough, he was terrified of hearing their unfiltered thoughts about his performance. Boys are embarrassed enough about their stamina, prowess, or lack thereof, without actually being able to hear the inner monologue of the woman underneath them. Can you imagine what your first time would have been like if your partner just flat old told you that you weren't any good? That you hurt them or didn't last long enough or weren't big enough or something? He couldn't have taken the blow to his ego."

Leah nods. "I could see that. Guys aren't exactly known for their performance when they lose their virginity. One and done and all that."

Bella blushes, thinking of her first time, and Rosalie picks up on her increased heart rate. "Ooh, apparently not Jacob, hmm?"

Leah laughs and decides to embarrass Bella more. "It was ridiculous, Rose. He was like her Dom their first time. Alpha ordering her to do what he wanted."

"Ooh, kinky! Sounds like fun. But you said they're not the only kinky ones in the pack, right?"

"Not at all. The imprinted guys have shifted their sex drives and interests to match their imprints. It's very odd."

Rose protests, "You can't stop there. Now you have to tell me."

"How come?" Bella demands.

"I'm bored, my dear. Decade after decade, watching the world go by, can't even fall asleep at night to help the time pass. There is so little novelty left to be had. Let me get my entertainment where I may."

"And if I'm subjected to the insides of the guys' brains, I've got to get something out of it," Leah grins. "At the very least, I get to gossip about it. After all, who's she going to tell?"

"Good. Now give me some juicy gossip," Rosalie leans forward.

Leah pours herself another drink and cackles as she admits, "Well, Jared had only ever had vanilla, missionary sex before he imprinted on Kim, but she has taken him to places he didn't know existed."

Rose smirks. "So she's kinky, eh? Kinker than vampire sex?"

Leah shakes her head. "I've got no idea what vampire sex is like, and I don't want to know. But Kim could teach Bella and Jacob a few tricks, if you can believe it. In person, if you were into that sort of thing. Hell, she'd probably let you and Emmett join in." She takes a swig of her lemon drop and dangles it loosely in her hand. She is nowhere near drunk, but the four alcoholic beverages she has downed in the past four minutes have her loosened up.

"No thanks, not my type. That one with the floppy hair, though, he's a tall drink of water. I want to know about him."

"Who, Embry?" Leah snorts. "Okay, fine. Um, Embry's sex life waxes and wanes along with whether or not Julie is speaking to him. They're not into anything outrageous, and he doesn't see other girls besides her. Paul wishes he was having sex with Rachel, but isn't, of course, but he's still pretty happy with Elle. Who is, um, rather flexible, as it were." The girls dissolve into giggles, Bella in particular since her one lemon drop is affecting her much more than Leah's four. "Although that doesn't stop him from fantasizing about Rachel while he's with Elle. Oh god, Bella, don't you dare tell either one of them. Either Jake or Rachel will, like, end Paul."

Bella frowns. "How doesn't Jacob know already?"

"Paul is really, really, really careful not to think about sex at all when he's phased in with Jake," she explains.

"And the other guys?" prompts Rosalie.

"Oh. Well, my baby brother is still a virgin, thank god, along with the other young ones, Brady and Collin. But Collin is kind of a perv, if you ask me."

Bella snorts and nearly spills her drink. "That's just because he has a crush on you, Leah." Leah just shrugs.

Rosalie turns to Bella. "So apparently yours was a stud the first time you did it. Was it actually his first time too?"

"Yeah. We were each other's first."

"Not due to lack of trying on the part of other girls, though," Leah adds. "It's hysterical. Before he wolfed out, the occasional girl had a crush here and there, but he didn't notice. Then he got big and buff, and everybody noticed. But he was so wrapped up in Swan, here, that it didn't register. He finally started paying attention to it when my cousin came to town. She has it bad for him, and now they're stuck in classes together. But his wolf hates her for some reason, and she makes him really uncomfortable. But every time she touches him, he gets all horny. That's why these two keep having sex in public places. Jacob totally loses control."

"Too much information, Leah!" Bella protests.

"Hey, like I said before. Once you start having sex on other people's dining room tables, you lose your right to privacy. You should prepare yourself for a busy night, Bella. She's over there right now, right?" Leah waggles her eyebrows at Bella suggestively.

"Yeah, doing their project."

"Wait," Rosalie interrupts. "So tell me more about this girl. Your cousin, you said?"

"Jasmine." Leah nods. "She has had a thing for Jacob ever since she spotted him for the first time. All the way back. Like, I think they were probably three or something. Rachel and Rebecca called her Jake's Little Shadow. She moved away for a while, but now she's back. And her crush is still going full force. Probably stronger now that he looks like a sex god."

"You think Jake looks like a sex god?" Bella giggles.

"Yeah," Leah answers, unashamed. "Most of the guys do, frankly. The ones who are grown, anyway. If all I saw was the outside of them, I'd probably have the hots for them too. Sadly, since I have access to their brains, so not so much! It's the one thing I have in common with Edward. Like you said, Rose, people become way less attractive when you can read their minds."

Bella is intensely curious. "What do they think about you? Do you know?"

"Some of them do a better job about hiding that than others. Collin you know about, that little perv. I'm related to Seth and Brady, so that's that. Sam, well, you know the drama. Jared thinks I'm 'hot', his word, not mine, but in a detached way because of his imprint. Quil too. Embry sort of wants to bang me in the way teenage guys want to bang any reasonably attractive girl they know, only more so since he knows what I look like naked. Paul had some seriously disturbing fantasies of his own before he imprinted, and he did not try to hide it one bit. Jake's sort of like Jared and Quil. He really only sees you, Bella. But every one of them likes to sneak a peek if they can catch me naked. Which is okay, since hey, I'm peeking right back."

"Lucky you!" Bella grins.

"So odd. But what's this about your cousin making Jacob horny?" Rosalie asks, fascinated.

Leah drinks another cocktail. "Mm. So he gets a damn hard-on when she touches him. But he doesn't want her. Seriously. I phased in with him the first time it happened. He doesn't want Jasmine. His wolf wants to tear her head off, and he gets this overwhelming urge to molest Bella. It's how they ended up on Sam's table, my brother's bedroom, and the community center."

"So he goes wild with lust for Bella? Wow. Sounds like an all around a win for you, huh?" She smirks at Bella before turning back to Leah. "Okay," she leans forward. "I know this is supposedly off limits to ask, but no one ever accused me of having tact. Tell me about Sam's sex life. Pre imprint and post."

Leah's eyes widen. She isn't used to people being so blunt. Bella interrupts, "Rose, please!"

But Leah shakes her head. A year ago, had anyone asked this question, she would have either ripped their head off or started crying. But time, in fact, does seem to heal all wounds. At least partially. "No, it's okay. It's kind of nice not having someone walk on eggshells around me for once. Let's just say that Emily is losing out."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Leah pauses, carefully considering her words. "When Sam and I first got together, he was more experienced than I was. I mean, I was a virgin when we got together. He wasn't. But he was really gentle. And I was in love, we both were. So we, you know, figured things out together. And that was wonderful. Once we both knew what we were doing, well, we let our inhibitions down. And it turns out he was, frankly, wild in bed. Dominating and powerful. But he loved it just as much when I turned the tables on him." She smirks at Bella. "You aren't the first couple to have sex in the community center, Bella. Or Seth's room, for that matter," she laughs.

Rosalie summarizes. "So you were a wildcat in bed, and he was just as kinky as you." Leah just nods. "But post imprint?"

Leah sighs. "Oh. Well, Emily wants to be... cherished."

"Vanilla?" Bella asks.

"Vanilla," Leah confirms. "But you know how imprinting works. Now he likes vanilla too. Or thinks he does until he remembers, but then forgets it again a second later."

Rosalie makes a face like she smells something foul. "Oh. How boring. A waste of a good man, if you ask me. Just a shame."

"She was waiting for me when we got back from Seattle," Leah tells Bella.

"Oh no. What happened?"

"She was freaking out that he hadn't come home yet."

"Wait, is he not back yet?"

"Not as far as I know. But he's due to patrol again soon, so my guess is he'll be back by then."

"What's he doing, do you think?"

"Probably trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Maybe trying to resist the imprint. I don't know. Did Seth tell you he asked me to get back together with him?"

"No!" Bella is obviously shocked. "What happened?"

"When I woke up, he was in bed with me. Holding me. He told me he was ready to leave Emily. Said he'd just stay in Seattle, not come home again."

"Oh my god. How come he only figures out how important you are when you're on death's doorstep? What did you say?"

"Too little, too late, basically. But I know him and I know Em. He was hurting. Physically hurting. Because Em was calling him home, and fighting it was causing him terrible pain. I knew it. I don't want that for him. And I know that unless she decides to let him go the way Rachel let Paul go, it was never going to stop. And I know her as well as I know him, and she isn't going to let him go. She just hasn't figured it out yet. So I told him to go, and not to come back."

"I'm sorry."

Leah tips back another lemon drop, pours herself another, and tops off Bella's glass. "I'll be fine, really. As long as he leaves me alone. As long as she leaves me alone, for that matter."

"You should have told her to fuck off," Rosalie huffs.

Leah laughs at that. "I did, basically. I told her to figure out what she really wants, stop fucking around with him, and stop fucking around with me."

"Good for you!" Rosalie congratulates her. "And you've got a date for the next time you go back to Seattle."

"I do," Leah relaxes back among the cushions of her armchair.

Bella smiles. "Miguel is gorgeous. And smitten with you. And his daughter loves you."

"Best part is that he already knows about the shifting. No secrets."

"Is that why you didn't go to Eugene with Brad?" Bella asks.

"Partly. And it really is a bit farther than I was comfortable with. I just wasn't ready yet. And I'm not sure he was the sort of guy to make a big move for. Fun and good looking, yes, but a bit young."

"He's your age!"

"I guess I feel sort of old, though."

Rosalie nods. "You've been through more than most adults three times your age, so it's no wonder. Is Miguel going to be your first date since Brad?"

Leah actually blushes. "Not exactly."

Bella narrows her eyes. "Wait, you never said anything about a date. And your cheeks are red!"

"And your heart rate just sped up!" Rosalie adds.

"Who was it? Are you still seeing him? What's his name?"

"Um, Jamie."

"Jamie? The guy from your study group?"

"Well," Leah won't make eye contact. "I never said Jamie was a guy." She trails off, but there is a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh, wow. You're gay? Or bi?"

"I was, uh, experimenting? I definitely like guys, no question there. And I'd never thought about girls before, not like that. But one day she up and kissed me after study group. I guess in retrospect I should have seen it coming, but I'm dense, so I didn't."

Bella prods, "So what happened?"

"She startled me, obviously. But it felt nice, 'cause she's a really good kisser. So I kind of said, 'What the hell?' and I kind of just went with it."

"And?" Rosalie demands.

"We went back to her place. I missed my Lit class, and I was late meeting Bella at the coffee shop."

"Oh my god! I remember that day. Your hair was a total mess!"

"Now you know why," Leah smirks.

"Damn!" is all Bella can think to say. "The guys would lose their minds if they knew."

"No kidding. After you told Jake we went to Victoria's Secret together, the whole pack went wild with the most inappropriate fantasies of you and me, Bella. All of them. Imprinted and unimprinted ones alike. If I'd known that would happen, I wouldn't have told you to tell him."

"Too late."

"So how was it?" Rosalie wants to know. "Did you like it?"

Leah blushes again. "She, um, knew what she was doing. So yeah. It was hard not to."

A knock interrupts their talk. "Shoot." Rosalie mutters. "Just when you were getting to the juicy part."

"Literally!" a slightly drunk Bella snorts and giggles, while Rosalie laughs at her.

Leah opens the door to reveal an inquisitive looking Jasmine. "Hi! Come on in," she steps aside.

"I heard you got hurt. I wanted to see how you were. But you look good!" Jasmine enters, then startles when she rounds the corner and sees Bella and Rosalie. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm interrupting. Is your mom around? I'm not feeling too good, and I thought maybe since she's a nurse..."

"You are interrupting, but that's okay. Bella here needs a break. Leah's drinking her under the table. Unfortunately Sue is at work," Rosalie smirks. "I'm Rosalie Hale. It's nice to meet you." Rosalie stands and extends her hand.

Jasmine tenses immediately with a little crinkle in her forehead, but answers, "Jasmine Hudson. I'm Leah's cousin." She grits her teeth together and forces a smile, tentatively taking Rosalie's hand.

"Oh! Were your ears burning just now? We were talking about you."

Jasmine pulls her hand back abruptly. "Your hand is freezing."

Rosalie tosses her hair back and sniffs. She sits down gracefully, crossing one leg over the other. "Yes. And yours is quite hot," she answers in a cool tone.

"So you were talking about me, huh?" Jasmine asks suspiciously.

"Not really. Your name just came up in passing." Leah places a reassuring hand on her arm and frowns. Jasmine is trembling slightly. "Can I take your jacket?"

"We were talking about boys," Bella whisper yells as Jasmine hands her raincoat to Leah.

"And my name came up? I've never been accused of being a boy before." Now Jasmine is frowning at the obviously tipsy Bella.

Bella giggles. "We were also talking about a girl named Jamie whom I thought was a boy. But I was wrong."

Leah snorts as she returns bearing an extra glass. "Wouldn't be the first time you were wrong, Swan, and it sure as hell won't be the last." She plops herself down into her armchair. "Stay a while," she says to her cousin. Jasmine awkwardly perches herself in the only available seat, the spot on the couch next to Bella, holding herself rigidly. "Lemon drop?"

"Oh. Okay," Jasmine agrees reluctantly. Unsure what to do with the ensuing silence, she prompts, "So boys, huh? Which ones?"

"The hot ones," Bella answers immediately.

"Our group of guy friends," Leah clarifies, handing Jasmine the glass. Their fingers brush together briefly, and Leah frowns. "Hey, Rose is right. You are hot."

"I don't feel so well, like I said," Jasmine answers, brushing a bead of sweat off her brow.

Under her breath, Rosalie mutters very quietly, "Sick with lust over Bella's boyfriend, no doubt." It is so quiet that Leah can hear, but Bella cannot.

"Excuse me?" Jasmine snaps, whipping her head around to glare at Rosalie.

Leah narrows her eyes. "You heard that?"

Rosalie looks momentarily surprised, but shrugs it off. "That's how you came up in the conversation. We were talking about boys, just like Bella said. Your name came up when we were talking about Jacob."

Jasmine's trembles turn into visible shaking. It is violent enough that some of the drink spills onto the carpet. Leah reaches out to take back the glass. "Whoa, steady there, Jasmine."

Jasmine pays no heed to Leah. "What were you saying about me?"

Rosalie shrugs disdainfully. "Just talking about your crush on Bella's boyfriend."

"Rose!" Bella exclaims. "Please!"

Leah stands abruptly, staring at her cousin. Jasmine is gripping the couch cushion upon which she sits with a death grip. The fabric starts to tear. She holds up a warning hand to Rosalie. "Seriously, Rose. Shut the hell up."

Rosalie addresses Leah rather than facing Jasmine. "Oh, hush. I'm just being honest. The truth is good for her."

"No, Rose," Leah steps toward her cousin. "Bella, go to the kitchen."

Bella doesn't understand. Her mental processes are slowed from alcohol, so she doesn't move. Meanwhile, Rosalie barrels on. "She may as well know she's got no shot. She can move on that way. All of you, Jacob included, know she's got the hots for him. He doesn't reciprocate, and she should leave him alone. She's a..."

Rosalie doesn't get to finish her sentence. Jasmine explodes with an agonized howl, and Bella doesn't manage to get out of the way.

X-x-x-x-X


	22. Chapter 21

X-x-x-x-X  
March 22  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob feels like his head is underwater, but there is an annoying buzzing in his skull. Something pokes at his side, and he brushes it away. But it won't stop.

"Jacob. Son. Sleeping Beauty."

"Mmmph." He swats at the annoying insect that keeps trying to bite him.

"Hey you. Get up."

The poking sensation continues, so he just rolls away from it. Why won't that buzzing sound stop?

"That thing is annoying. Either turn it off or get up."

He ignores the voice. But something slaps him upside the head. It doesn't smell good. "Fffffff..." he answers.

"You have things to do. Or don't, your choice. But turn that thing off. It's driving me crazy." At the second slap, he finally opens his eyes. One of Billy's slippers is on his chest, the other lying by his head. The fireplace poker lies on the floor.

"Were you stabbing me with that?" he asks his father as he turns off his buzzing alarm, tossing his slippers back toward him. The clock reads 1:35 PM. Billy is in the hallway, his wheelchair too wide to admit him into Jacob's bedroom.

"Like I could possibly hurt you with it," Billy scoffs. "Your alarm has been going off for five minutes. It was driving me out of my mind."

Jacob swings his legs over the side of his bed and rubs his face. "I'm tired. I only got five hours of sleep after running sixteen hours straight," he yawns.

"I know, and it's okay with me if you go back to sleep. You can do your homework later. But I couldn't stand your alarm anymore."

Jacob eyes Billy's slippers. "Were you trying to hit me with those, or the alarm?"

Billy shrugs as he rolls away. "Either one would do. It worked, didn't it? The alarm is off now. Want some food?"

Jacob's stomach rumbles. "Always."

"More than sleep?"

"Yeah. I do have too much homework to do. I don't want it hanging over my head for the whole week. And Jasmine will be here at six thirty to finish our project. If I hurry, I can finish most of my other assignments before she gets here."

"Are you going to study for your tests tomorrow? Or later during break?" Billy calls out from the kitchen.

Jacob tugs on a shirt and pants. "Maybe. I need to do the assignments more since they have to be turned in. Once I do my chemistry homework, I'll be caught up for the test. I remember all the lectures I was there for. And the math exam will be easy."

"When are you making them up?" He takes a tray of Bella's lasagna from the refrigerator and pops it in the microwave.

"Monday when we get back. At lunch and right after school. What are you up to tonight?" Jacob heads into the bathroom. He really wants his father to stay in the house while Jasmine is here but is embarrassed to ask for it directly.

"I have a bunch of paperwork to go over. Several council members have requested funds for their pet projects. I need to prioritize the community's needs, but still want to make sure there are sufficient funds for your pack. How do you feel about each pack member getting a salary and a lump sum? Sort of like the starting bonus plus regular pay for joining the military. And what do we do for people who stop phasing, like Leah wants to do? Should they stop getting paid? Do they just get less? I'm not sure."

Jacob grunts noncomittally as he brushes his teeth. He can't begrudge this to his brothers, but thinking about Edward Cullen's money still makes his head hurt.

"Anyway," Billy continues, "I'm drowning in spreadsheets and grant proposals. That's what I'm doing tonight."

After Jacob finishes lunch, he takes a quick spirit walk to check on Seth and Embry.

_By the time he finds them, Seth and Embry have already reached the edge of the National Forest. They have not yet parted ways, and they each give him a bark of greeting as he dips low in the air just above their heads. He speeds ahead to check the forest for any vampires. After Leah's near death experience, he doesn't want to leave any of his pack separated without backup. He is particularly concerned about Seth and Embry, as they need to isolate themselves from one another in order to find their taxilits. If successful, they will need to spirit walk away from their own bodies, leaving them entirely vulnerable to attack. It is a risk they are both willing to take, but Jacob isn't taking any chances, particularly considering Alice's foreboding vision. _

_It doesn't take him long to confirm that the forest is free of vampires. There are no black holes where a soul had once made its home. Afterward he swings north to the strait, beginning a wide circuit around the Peninsula. He floats all the way east to Puget Sound, then loops back toward the reservation. The sparks of life visible beneath him never fail to fascinate him, the myriad points of being that indicate human, animal, and plant life alike. Each has its own particular wavelength, color, strength and vibrancy that indicate it as individual and unique. They look like the myriad stars in the sky. He would love to stay this way, meander and explore, but he has too many responsilities. He checks in once more with his brothers, seeing that they have phased back to human form and have gone on their own paths. As he lowers himself close to the ground, he notices something he had never taken the time to see before. At the heart of each of his brothers, there are twin lights burning brightly. They sit so close that from above, they appear as one. The lights are the souls of the man and the wolf. Jacob smiles as he recognizes the kindred spirits, and then he speeds back to his home and his body._

_But on the edge of Forks, he sees something that gives him pause. It is not black hole. At the center of a vacuum is a swirling haze of brilliant, multicolored light, from wavelengths ultraviolet to infrared. It looks not like the stars that represent human life, but like a miniature supernova, the glowing shell of an exploding, dying star. _

_This is what she is becoming. She is rejecting the monster, the void, the vacuum. She has the echo of life within her. _

_Rosalie has a soul. _

_Jacob whirls away. Now he wants to know. If at the center of the emptiness of this vampire is the essence of life, what is in Carlisle's heart? He spins high into the atmosphere, reaches out, seeking, searching. He flings himself east at the speed of light, and in an instant, he is hovering over the Cullens' new home. They are all here. _

_And he sees them. Four vacuums. But the spaces aren't entirely empty like most vampires. They each contain a black dwarf, the remnant of what once was a living star. Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Esme. Not the complete emptiness of the monsters like Irina, Edward, or any of the countless vampires who have lost their souls to cruelty and depravity, but the cool, faded cores of the humans they once were. _

_But then the fifth. There is no void here of any kind. There is one blue and white supergiant star, massive and hot, burning brightly with life. Real life. The soul at his center, the core, the essence, the very heart of him. A truly beautiful thing._

_Carlisle. _

_Jacob smiles and places his spectral hand upon Carlisle's cool, hard shoulder. The vampire turns but does not see him. But Carlisle feels the suffusing of warmth into his skin, and then it is gone._

_As he lifts high in the atmosphere, relishing the sensation of flight, Jacob wonders. Can he find Tanya? The vampire who threatens them now, whose path somehow ends in a dank room full of someone's blood? He reaches out, spreading himself wide. But he doesn't know what he is looking for. He has never met this particular vampire before, and other than a vague description, he has no idea where to start. He could fly around the entire world, but without anything at all to guide him, he could explore for a year and never find her. _

So he opens his eyes and lifts himself off the couch. He finds his father seated at the kitchen table with a novel in his hand and a pile of paperwork beside him. Billy is blatantly ignoring his own homework. Jacob doesn't really feel like doing his either, so after dragging his bookbag out and spreading his chemistry assignment before him, he interrupts his father. "So I checked on Seth and Embry. They're doing fine. No vamps anywhere near them."

"That's good." Billy doesn't bother looking up.

"I checked the whole peninsula. Ran across Rosalie on my way back."

"Mmm."

"She has a soul."

That catches Billy's attention, and he immediately sets his book down. "What did you say?"

"Rosalie has a soul."

"How can you tell?" Billy's eyes are wide.

"I can see it. When I'm spirit walking, I can see the life at the core of every being. It's amazing. At the center of each living thing, there is this light. In humans, it looks like a tiny star. Everybody's is different. Some are brighter or dimmer, different colors or intensities. Trees are a deep green. Animals look more like comets. I've seen people die. Their lights start to fade."

"But what about the Cold Ones?"

"They're vacuums. Black holes. Nothingness that just take life into themselves, where they destroy it, turn it into more nothing. But not Rosalie. Here, let me show you. Are Rachel's old astronomy textbooks around?"

"In the basement, why?"

"Like I said," Jacob says as he runs off. "I want to show you what it looks like." Ten minutes later, he returns with a heavy textbook. He flips it to the back appendix, glossy photographs of stellar formations. "Look. Here's what a star looks like, right?" He points. "But when a big star runs out of fuel and dies, it explodes into a supernova. Like this," he flips the page to reveal a multicolored flash in the dark of space. "That's what Rosalie has inside her. Not a star, but a tiny supernova."

"Wow. So she's alive?"

"I don't know. But she has that spark of life in her. Not her body, that's locked as it is. But somewhere in there, in her mind, her heart, her soul, I don't know what to call it, there's this. It doesn't look like any other being I've ever seen."

"What about the other Cullens?"

"That's the crazy part!" Jacob flips a few more pages. He points a white sphere. "Here's a white dwarf. When a smaller star like our sun starts running out of fuel, it turns into a white dwarf. It's dimmer and cooling off. When all the energy, all the heat is gone, all that's left is a black dwarf. The core of what used to be a star." He flips to a painting of a dense gray ball floating in a sea of black. "That's what the other Cullens look like. The remnants of a life. But not like a black hole. Black holes used to be stars too, right? But they're so dense that nothing can escape their gravitational pull. They suck everything in. Even light. That's what most vampires look like. It's what Edward had inside him, and Irina, even though neither of them drank human blood. But not the other Cullens. It's like the basic remnants of who they once were, it's still there inside them."

"That's amazing," Billy breathes.

"And that's not even the best part." Jacob turns several more pages to reveal a giant, swirling mass of blue light. "That's what Carlisle looks like."

Billy leans forward, fascinated at the image. "What is it?"

"It's a blue supergiant star. One of the very biggest kinds of stars, and one of the hottest. What's inside Dr. Cullen? It looks like this."

"It's beautiful."

"It's a human soul. He has a human soul."

Billy stares at him wordlessly.

"Dad, what do you think that means? Did he gain it back from his good deeds? Or is that why he's so good?"

"Like the chicken or the egg? I'm not sure. But I think the fact that Rosalie looks like a supernova, a star in it's last death throes, I wonder if that means she's going backward. Going in reverse. Maybe she's on her way to becoming like Carlisle. Becoming more human. In spirit if not in body. Maybe in a while, depending on what she does and who she evolves into, maybe she can turn her vampire soul back into the human one she used to have." Billy pulls the book off the table. "I want to talk to Old Quil. Can you help me get into my truck?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Will you be okay here by yourself?" What he really asks is whether Jacob will be okay here with Jasmine.

Jacob nods. He can't keep running from his fear or using other people as buffers against it. As he tosses Billy's wheelchair into the bed of the truck, he sees his father stick his head on the window. "Hey, Jacob?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really proud of you, son."

Jacob enters his house and tries to concentrate on his homework. For the most part, he succeeds, mostly since he knows that if he doesn't do this now, he won't be able to spend any time with Bella tomorrow. The motivation is enough. He is able to concentrate enough that he is actually startled when Jasmine knocks on his front door. "Come on in," he steps back, mentally soothing his wolf with thoughts of his Bella.

She looks curiously around, clearly trying to figure out if they are chaperoned again today. "No Quil?"

"Sorry, just us today." He steps back enough that she can't touch him accidentally. His wolf growls at her anyway.

"Where's your dad? I'd like to say hi."

He gets dizzy and nauseated from her scent. "At the Ateara's, actually. I was gonna order pizza for dinner, you want some?"

"Sure, sounds good."

She decides to go out on a limb and ask him, "So where were you earlier this week? Did you get sick?"

It is a good enough cover story as any, and he can't concentrate enough to come up with a better one. "Yeah, just picked up a bug I guess."

"You okay now?" She looks genuinely concerned for him, peeking up at him through her thick lashes with her hands stuffed deep into her pockets.

"Sure, sure." He can feel his heart thudding in his chest in a very unpleasant way, and he knows it isn't due to whatever Bella is doing right now.

"Seth wasn't around either, or Leah. My aunt said something happened to Leah, but she didn't know what."

"Oh, that. Had a little accident in Seattle, but she's okay. Seth went to go get her. She's at home now, doing fine I think." He hands her a soda from the fridge, careful not to touch her fingers, and clears space off the kitchen table before calling the only pizza place in Forks that will deliver all the way to the reservation.

She looks at him in surprise when he hangs up. "Is anybody else coming tonight?"

"No, why?"

"Two large pizzas just for us?"

He shrugs. "I'm hungry."

She giggles at him, and the sound grates on his ears. "Apparently."

They are both standing awkwardly in the kitchen, each waiting for the other to sit first. Jacob wants to make sure to sit as far as her from possible, whereas she wants to sit next to him. He compromises by pulling out a chair for her. She smiles up at him. "What a gentleman." The scent of her shampoo wafting off her hair is a strong freesia scent, and it gives him a headache.

He feels exactly the opposite, and chooses the chair across from her. And as soon as he does so, he realizes he left all the work they finished so far in his bedroom. "My brain's not working right," he says truthfully. "Let me go get our stuff."

In his room, he breathes deeply. The whole space smells like Bella, and his wolf makes a rumbling sound of contentment inside him. He actually lifts his pillow, buries his face in it, and inhales the strawberry and vanilla scent of his Bells. His heartbeat slows and his headache fades. Without thinking, he rips the hem off the pillowcase and stuffs it in his pocket before grabbing their work and bringing it back to the kitchen table.

Jacob is happy to have at least one more distraction from talking directly with Jasmine. They still have a bit more research to do; Emily's grandfather, a Makah elder, agreed to be their resource to discuss the neighboring tribe's versions of the Quileute legends. Jacob places the phone on speaker in the center of the kitchen table, and they spend the next half hour speaking with him. By the time they get off the phone, their food has arrived.

Jasmine marvels and laughs at the amount of food Jacob consumes, but he notes that she managed to eat half a pizza by herself as well. Every time he becomes uncomfortable, he reaches in his pocket to finger the scrap of cloth he has hidden there, and the faint scent of Bella it releases keeps his wolf manageable. He wonders idly to himself why tonight seems so difficult; he had gotten much more comfortable with her over the course of the past couple weeks, and he seems to have regressed. Perhaps it is that they are actually alone, or perhaps it is the blatantly adoring looks she keeps throwing his way. She hasn't said anything inappropriate, not really, but she stares at him a little too long and a little too often, and not just at his face in general. He can feel her looking at his lips or his muscular arms, and he suddenly feels guilty for ever ogling a girl. Of course, the only girl he ever really ogled was Bella, although he had to admit, at least to himself, that he certainly caught himself sneaking a look at Leah on the occasions she was briefly nude with the pack. It is basically impossible not to at least glance, particularly since she really is a beautiful woman.

And from the way she looks at him, Jasmine obviously thinks he is beautiful as well. He doesn't look up, scribbling away at the outline in front of him, but he knows she is currently eyeing the lines of his pectorals through his tight shirt. She is actually blushing a little. Why did he wear this shirt? He wasn't paying attention to what he put on, but it, like all his old clothes, doesn't fit particularly well. After he grew even more when he became Alpha, his then-new wardrobe suddenly became outdated again.

He finally "accidentally" knocks his soda onto himself, running off to his bedroom again to change, searching with futility for something big and loose. He needs to do laundry. Not a single clean shirt is baggy enough for his taste. He finally settles for the biggest long sleeved shirt he owns, pulling it out of the hamper of unwashed clothes. So what if it doesn't smell like laundry detergent? It's not like he's trying to impress her.

But for some reason, the shirt has the opposite effect than he intended. Jasmine licks her lips involuntarily when he returns to the kitchen, and a minute later he catches her taking deeper breaths than are normal for someone sitting still. He frowns and surreptitiously bends his head to check if the shirt smells like unpleasant body odor. No, that's not it. It smells strongly of him, but not in a bad way as far as he can tell. Odd.

He sets his discomfort aside. The faster they finish this project, the sooner she will leave, and then he can go find Bella.

A few minutes later, their progress is interrupted by the ringing of Jasmine's phone. She answers, "Hey, hon." She pauses and smiles at him apologetically. He hears Katelyn on the other end of the line. Of Jasmine's closest friends from childhood, Julie and Katelyn still live on the reservation, although Missy moved away shortly after Jasmine did. The two girls have never been as close with each other as they were with Julie, but they apparently still talk. "No, actually I'm not really free right now. I'm at Jacob's house." He notices she doesn't mention their school project at all.

The other girl coos, "Oooh. He's fuckhot. You've got to climb him like a goddamn tree, girl."

Jasmine has no idea he can hear everything Katelyn says, so she giggles, "I'd like to, sure."

"Is he up for it?" Katelyn asks.

Nonchalantly, Jasmine answers, "I hope so, but I doubt it." Jacob is oddly satisfied to hear that she seems to harbor no illusions his feelings for her.

"Are you wearing that sweater we bought last weekend at the mall?"

"Mm hmm." Jacob hadn't noticed until then, but her sweater is a tight-fitting, low cut scoop neck that reveals her ample cleavage, and a glittering blue gem hangs on a long gold chain, nestled between her breasts. It is probably supposed to draw his attention, although it failed until now. He studiously looks down at his notebook and tries to hide his frown.

"Oh, was that who you bought that for? You were being awfully picky. Trying to find something sexy without being too obvious? Good choice."

"Busted," she smiles.

"Is his dad around? Or his lame girlfriend?" Jacob bristles at the disparaging reference to Bella.

"Nope."

"So I'm the only one cramping your style right now? I'd better let you go. This is your chance."

"Maybe, we have lots of work to finish. I'll call you later, okay?"

"You'd better! And I want lots of juicy details. Make them up if you have to! Oh, what I wouldn't give to change places with you."

Jasmine giggles again. "Seriously, I gotta go, okay?"

Katelyn answers happily, "Fine, be that way! Bye!"

She hangs up and smiles at him sheepishly. "Sorry, that was Katelyn."

Jacob knows already, of course, but feigns ignorance. "Oh, how's she doing?"

Jasmine shocks Jacob by answering truthfully. "Jealous."

His head snaps up. "Huh?"

She lowers her voice conspiratorially. "I think she'd like to be here right now." She lowers her gaze to her papers and shuffles them around. "She probably wishes she thought to pair up with you for the project, but I got you instead."

Is she admitting that she has been trying to spend more time with him deliberately? He tries to sidestep the statement. "Huh. I guess we see each other at school, but we really don't hang out."

"Us either." She still doesn't lift her eyes from her paper.

"True..." He has no idea what else to say.

She looks up, directly at him. He sees sincerity in her eyes. "I was sort of hoping we would. I remember we used to be friends when we were kids. We were pretty close."

Jacob can't figure out what to say. She still hasn't said or done anything genuinely inappropriate, but he is intensely uncomfortable, especially after hearing Katelyn's half of the telephone conversation. "I stay pretty busy." It certainly isn't a lie.

"Do you have time in your busy schedule to give me some help? When we were little, you taught me to add and subtract."

"I did, didn't I?" That sounds about right, but he can't be sure.

She chews on her bottom lip, a gesture he finds sexy on Bella but annoying on Jasmine. "So pre calc is harder than arithmetic. I've seen you in class. You always know what to write when you go up to the board. You always have the answer, at least if you're awake." He can't help but laugh. This is true. Sleep deprivation does take a toll on his scholastics. "I could use some tutoring. Do you think you could help me out?"

He stares at her, trying to figure out if this is an attempt at flirting or a sincere request. He looks in her eyes and decides that it is both. "There's a real tutoring system," he answers. He takes the only out he can think of. "And you know that falling asleep in class thing?"

"Yeah," she nods.

"I've got a lot on my plate as it is. I'm not sure where we'd fit that in. You could ask Quil, though. He's good too."

"Oh, that's a good idea!" She looks as if she expected his refusal, and she sounds surprisingly pleased with his suggestion. "He's such a goofball that I forget he's got a brain in there somewhere. I'll do that. I actually did try the tutor service. They assigned me a girl who goes to Peninsula. She seemed nice and offered to meet me in Forks, but I've got no transportation to get even that far." After a beat, she gives it one last shot. "Do you remember how we used to play together when we were kids?"

"Sure, sure. A bunch of us did." He remembers in the vague, fuzzy way that he remembers most incidental events from his young childhood, unlike his memories of Bella. Those are all as vivid as if they happened yesterday.

She tips her head down with a shy little smile, nervously clicking her pen. He hears her pulse speed up. "You know, when I was a kid, I used to think we'd pair off. The six of us. Before Katelyn moved to the Rez."

"The six of us?" Now Jacob is perplexed in addition to being annoyed.

"Yeah," she blushes. "Embry and Julie, Missy and Quil, and you and me. That's what I thought would happen when we got older."

Jacob is dumbfounded at her directness. Is she flirting? Baring her true feelings to him? Just telling him a funny story? Or all three? He cuts her off before she gets any farther. "Oh. When I was little, I thought I'd grow up and marry Bella. My girlfriend." He tries to keep the anger out of his voice.

She looks up to meet his eyes, and he suddenly feels guilty. He doesn't see a manipulative bitch. He sees a sad teenage girl. "It's nice that that's working out for you," she says softly.

A few minutes later, Jasmine asks to use the bathroom. He examines her as she stands. She looks flushed and a sheen of sweat is visible on her brow. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine." But when she stands, she sways a bit. "Maybe I picked up the same bug you got this week."

"Maybe," he says skeptically. Not likely. She heads off down the hall, and he can't help but notice the sound of her pausing by his bedroom door on her way back. She actually steps inside it for a moment, and he is about to go find out why when she returns.

They actually work faster once Jasmine starts to feel ill. Now all she wants is to finish so she can go home and crawl in bed. It is moments like these when she misses her parents most. Aunt Meg is nice, but no one is quite as good at providing comfort than her own mother, and between Jacob's rebuffs and her sudden illness, she would love to be babied a little.

It only takes another hour or so to finish. Jacob sees her to the door, suggesting she see a doctor on Monday, and she gives him a halfhearted wave as she walks away. Jacob closes the door behind her and leans against it in relief. Ah. His wolf relaxes. He checks the clock. It is still relatively early. Bella will still be at Leah's house, so he returns to the kitchen to do the rest of his homework. If he can finish it all tonight, he will definitely be able to see Bella tomorrow after patrol, and he can spend the rest of his spring break with her. He opens the windows to flush out Jasmine's scent permeating the room, and his head clears.

Billy returns about thirty minutes later. Jacob goes outside to pull the wheelchair from the truck bed, and he pushes Billy inside. "Why's it so cold in here?"

"Oh, sorry. Just wanted some fresh air." He moves to shut the windows.

"How'd it go?"

"We finished, so that's good. And she asked me to tutor her in math. I said no, obviously."

"What do you think she really wanted?"

"To see me, honestly. I said I was too busy."

"You are. Not to mention taken," Billy nods.

Jacob smiles as he goes to the sink for a glass of water. "You really like Bella, don't you?"

"Now that she's got her head screwed on right. Let's face it. You weren't the only one who saw it coming. I've known you were in love with that girl since you were practically a baby."

"Yeah, but she wasn't exactly mooning over me."

"Seven year olds don't get crushes on five year olds, Jacob. But she loved spending time with you anyway. You put a smile on her face that no one else ever did, not then, and not now."

"I do love making her smile. Anyway, what did Old Quil have to say?" Jacob leans against the counter with his water glass in hand.

"He was wondering the same thing we were wondering. Is it the soul that makes them good, or do they earn their souls back by doing good things? Or is it something altogether different? He wanted to know more about what other people, animals, plants look like. He was wondering what the significance of the different appearances of the souls might mean."

"Yeah, I guess it's a good question. Not sure I have time to go exploring that right now, though. I have to be in spirit form. I can't see them when I'm me. When I'm a wolf, I did see Collin's when he was in spirit form, but that's the only time. And the pack members have two lights. One for the man, the other for the wolf. Or that's my guess, anyway."

"Interesting. So the wolf is an entirely separate entity?"

"Sam could have told you that. How he feels about Leah, but the way his wolf needs Em."

Billy shakes his head. "A shame about those three. Those sorts of stories aren't the ones we tell around the campfire. Makes you wonder how many homes imprinting wrecked. But we just don't know."

"There aren't legends about them?"

"If there were, they were lost. Fact is we don't know that much. At least now we write it all down. It's part of why Old Quil wants you to explore what you can and tell us." At Jacob's nervous look, he adds, "Anyway, I told him you have a lot on your plate right now. But he said that doesn't get you out of showing him your new dragon trick."

"That was pretty cool, wasn't it?"

"Yeah! And you'd better show your old man what it looks like before Old Quil gets to see. Hey, maybe you can light the next bonfire that way!"

Their laughter is interrupted when Jacob suddenly hisses in pain and drops his glass, shattering it against the tile and spilling water everywhere. He grabs at his left hip and thigh. "Fuck! Something happened to Bella!" His heart slams in his chest.

Simultaneously, two howls in the distance sound from opposite directions. Jacob instantly recognizes Jared and Brady. It's an emergency.

Jacob shoves the phantom pain aside, yelling, "Gotta go!" He whips his shirt over his head as he goes sprinting out the back door and drops his jeans in the middle of the yard.

He phases before he hits the treeline. And all is chaos. The first sound he hears is screaming. The sound is awful, a desperate shrieking inside his mind. But he barely notices. Even his brothers' voices don't register, although he hears them yelling as well.

Because he sees through unfamiliar eyes the love of his life. Bella is on the floor of the Clearwaters' living room in a puddle of blood. And she isn't moving. He starts sprinting toward her. The echoes of her body's pain zing through his form as he runs.

But he immediately loses sight of Bella, because a pale blur flies into view and knocks the unknown wolf backward. Secondhand, he feels the second impact of glass shattering against the wolf's back, and then the wolf tumbles over the porch and rolls into the grass outside.

Jacob tries to sort through the chaos.

Jared's voice, _Who are you? Tell us your name!_

And Brady. _What the hell? What the hell? What's going on?_

Jacob is relieved to hear Sam as well, as he is trying to encourage calm. Jacob can feel that this crisis gives him a sense of purpose, as he has not yet returned to the home he and Emily share after leaving Seattle. _You're gonna be okay. Just get into the woods. _

And through it all, panic and screaming. Jacob lost sight of Bella, but as the new wolf rights itself, Jacob catches view of Rosalie Cullen climbing out the broken front window of the Clearwaters' house. He barely manages to hear her voice through the din, "Don't you dare phase! You'll start bleeding into your brain again! Take her upstairs and put pressure on the wounds. I've got this." But then he can't even see Rosalie, because the new wolf is now staring at its paws on the ground with a sense of dismay and disbelief.

Jacob tries to push down his fury when he sees Bella's blood matted in the wolf's fur. He finds his voice. _Calm down and tell us who you are. You'll be fine. Calm down. Then tell me what happened to Bella. _He tries to sound soothing, so he avoids his Alpha tone, but there is nothing more terrifying to him than Bella being hurt.

Quil phases in then, along with Collin. They talk over each other. _Where is it? I'm ready to kill something. _

_Hey, wait, what's going on? Where do we go?_

_Who is that?_

_I don't know. What's with all the screaming? Is somebody hurt? Whose blood is that?_

The other voices only cause alarm, and they all feel the terror Collin caused with the word "kill". The instinctive urge to kill a vampire takes over the new wolf, who still has spoken no words, whose mind is just a jumble of panic, rage, and confusion. It launches itself at Rosalie, who braces herself easily against the inexperienced foe. Rose stands her ground and throws a sharp elbow into the wolf's muzzle, and the new pain echoes through the pack mind.

_Stop!_ Jacob yells an Alpha order as a cacophony of reactions reverberate through the pack mind. _She's a friend! Don't hurt her!_

But Rosalie doesn't know that the wolf won't attack again, and she barrels into its left flank, trying to pin the wolf to the ground.

Against his brothers' exclamations Jacob yells, _Quiet! _

The wolf lies flat on its side, furious and confused about Jacob's order to leave Rosalie alone. It goes against every instinct except the need to obey the Alpha.

Sam arrives first, and Jacob finally gets a look at the wolf. It is small, even smaller than Leah. Its fur is red like his own but streaked with more white, and it is very shaggy. It is craning its neck to look at Sam, and he feels its terror only grow at the sight of the enormous black wolf.

_I'm Sam Uley. I don't know if you know me, but I'm here to help you. _

_Sam is like you. We all are. We're your brothers, and we're here to help. _Jacob speaks in a soothing voice. _Sam, phase back. And tell Rose to lay off. It's going to be okay. _

The wolf gives its first coherent thought. _No it isn't, _in a distinctly feminine voice. And then he gets a flash of Bella in the other wolf's memory. He feels claws sinking into Bella's supple flesh as the wolf phased involuntarily for the first time. When he hears her gasp of pain in the new wolf's memory, he yells, _What did you do? What did you do? Fuck! Bella! _And out loud, his wolf howls in agony for his mate.

He pushes himself to his maximum speed while Sam says, _I'm sure it was an accident. Calm down. Leah's with her and will take care of her._ But they can all see Sam replaying his memory of accidentally hurting Emily right before he phases out. The new wolf becomes more terrified at Sam's memory, but they also hear her thoughts coming together as she pictures Emily's scarred face in her mind.

A second later, they all see Sam emerge from the trees in his basketball shorts through the eyes of the new wolf, still pinned to the ground by Rosalie. Sam calls out, "I'll take care of everything, Rosalie. You can get up now."

Rosalie nods and gets up carefully. "Be careful. She's dangerous. I'm going to go see if Bella's okay." And in a flash, Rosalie disappears into the house.

Sam approaches the new wolf carefully with his hands open. "See? Just me. Sam. I'm one of your brothers."

The wolf just snarls at him, teeth bared and hackles raised. She is ready to pounce and attack again. Jacob is too angry and afraid for Bella to say anything calming, so he just Alpha orders, _Don't hurt him. Go into the woods. He'll go with you. _

The wolf obeys, having no choice. She hasn't said anything else, her fear too consuming. She stops just inside the treeline, and Sam follows after her.

_Don't move until I get there. Don't hurt anybody. You're very dangerous right now. _

And the wolf relives the moment it phased and slashed into Bella's skin again. The memory prompts Jacob to head directly into the Clearwater home when he arrives there seconds later instead of going into the forest. He approaches it from the front and cannot see the new wolf, who is behind it and out of his line of vision. He knows he shouldn't make the stop, but he simply has to know how Bella is doing. And depending on what he finds, he will then either calm down the new wolf or kill her. Either way, she will be taken care of. He phases and leaps up the stairs in two bounds, stark naked. He hears Bella moaning in pain, and his heart nearly stops at the sound.

"Bella? Sweetheart? Bella?" He bursts into the already cramped bathroom.

Rosalie looks up from her position crouched over Bella, who is stretched out on the floor with her head on Leah's lap. Her eyes are squeezed shut in a grimace. Her jeans are slashed open at the left hip and thigh, and Rosalie is pressing towels to the wounds. The vampire, who had been holding her breath to avoid the tempting allure of Bella's blood, breathes in, shakes her head visibly to focus, and says, "She'll be okay. I'll have to take her to my house and stitch her wounds. But no major vessels were hit. She fainted, but she's waking up now."

Bella opens her eyes and tries to focus. "Jacob?" she asks weakly.

"I'm here." He drops to his knees by her feet.

She tries to sit up to reach him but has to stop, hissing in pain. Jacob feels the sting in his thigh and hip and leans forward to push her back down. "Don't move, honey."

"It hurts," she whispers. She trembles in pain.

"I know, baby, I'm so sorry. Can you tell me what happened?"

"We should walk and talk, Jacob. I need to close these wounds," Rosalie interrupts. "Or just take her to the ER."

"No hospital," Bella says. "I don't want to try to explain this. Another bear attack? It's too suspicious."

"Okay." He looks up at her, glancing between the towels pressed to Bella's leg and Rosalie's face. "Would it be faster to go get the stitches and stuff and come back? Driving there is really going to hurt with all the jostling and stuff. I can send one of the guys, they're faster than a car and can cut straight through the forest."

"Okay, but I'll go. No one else will know where to look." Then Rosalie pauses and scowls. "But only if that bitch isn't coming back."

Now it is Jacob's turn to scowl. "Tell me what happened. All I heard when I phased in was screaming. She couldn't tell us anything, not even her name."

"You mean you don't know?" Leah asks with trepidation. Jacob shakes his head, afraid of the answer.

"Jasmine," Bella whispers.

Jacob shakes with anger as his suspicions are confirmed, clenching his fists at his sides. "She isn't coming back. I ordered her to stay in the woods, and Sam is with her. Maybe he can stop me from killing her," he growls.

"It's okay, Jake. I'll be okay."

Jacob nods at her miserably. "Go ahead, Rosalie. Get what you need. I'll stay until you get back." She nods and disappears. They hear growling from outside, but nothing more.

"Don't you need to go?" Bella winces as Leah moves down to hold pressure on her wounds, while Jacob moves to gently cradle her head in his lap.

With a gentle touch, he brushes her hair from her brow. "While you're here hurt? Are you kidding me?" He lifts one of her hands and kisses her knuckles. Bella relaxes into his touch. As always, heat passes between them at the contact. Bella focuses on the pleasant sensation in an attempt to block out the pain. "I'm staying until she gets back. Gotta keep you safe. What happened?" He tries to hold his voice steady.

"I should have moved," Bella answers. "Leah told me to get out of the way, but I didn't."

"It is not your fault!" Jacob insists. "You didn't do this to yourself!"

"It was an accident, Jake," Leah begins. "Jasmine stopped by to see my mom. Said she wasn't feeling too well."

"I was kind of tipsy," Bella admits.

"My fault," Leah nods. "I offered Jasmine a drink too. She sat next to Bella. Rose, being Rose, said something sort of rude about Jasmine 's crush on you. But it was quiet. Jasmine shouldn't have been able to hear. It tipped me off, but I couldn't get Rose to stop talking."

"It wasn't her fault," Bella insists. "Not anybody's but mine. Leah told me to go, but I didn't."

"I saw it coming, but I wasn't fast enough to get her out of the way. When Jasmine phased, Bella was right next to her already. Caught the claw in her hip in the middle of the change."

"I passed out from the blood," Bella sheepishly admits.

Jacob curls himself over her. "I was so scared. I felt the pain when it happened. I saw you lying unconscious in a puddle of blood when I phased, and I was so scared I lost you." He ghosts his hands over as much bare skin as he can touch, and her pain eases a little.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

He lets out a surprised, nervous laugh and kisses her on the nose. "Silly girl, only you could apologize for something like that. It's not your fault. None of it."

"Then I'm sorry for bleeding all over Sue's nice, clean house?" She laughs a little before wincing.

"Oh honey," Jacob croons. "I wish I could take the pain away."

"Your hands help. Your touch helps. And I'm just glad you stopped to see me. But I know you have to go soon. New wolf and all."

"Guess I'm not the only girl in the pack anymore," Leah sighs.

"It's no wonder she phased all of a sudden," Bella adds, reaching up to cup his cheek with her hand."Bitchy vampire taunting her? I can hardly blame her."

"I can," Jacob says darkly as he leans into her hand. "She hurt you. She could've killed you."

"She had no idea. This is going to be hard enough for her without her Alpha wanting to fight her for hurting me. Promise you'll be nice."

"I can't be nice. Not after what she did to you."

"Promise you'll be civil."

Jacob pauses, then sighs. This is part of why he loves his Bells so much. Even though another girl just injured her, the same girl who has barely been concealing her feelings for Bella's own boyfriend, Bella still has sympathy for her. "I won't kill her."

"Guess I can't ask for more." Bella traces his bottom lip with her thumb.

Jacob kisses her thumb and clarifies, "Unless she threatens you again. Then there's nothing anyone can do to stop me. I hated her already. Maybe this is why. My wolf knew she was a threat to you."

Leah looks skeptical. "Maybe. But unless your wolf is psychic, I don't see how he could tell this would happen."

"I guess I just have another reason to hate her then."

They hear footsteps approaching, and Jared yells, "I think you need to get down here, man." He appears in the doorway. "Oh, shit. You okay, Bella?"

Jacob growls, "Does it look like she's okay?"

"Do you need me to take her to a hospital?" Jared offers.

"Rosalie's getting supplies to stitch her back up."

Bella smiles weakly. "Carlisle knew that as long as I was around, he'd better keep it all on hand. I've had so many stitches that I could probably do them myself if it weren't for the fainting."

"How's it going out there?" Leah asks.

"She's freaking out," Jared explains. "She's obeying your order to stay in the woods with Sam, but only since it was an Alpha order. Won't let anyone near her. She still hasn't said almost anything, except she started asking for you as soon as you phased out."

"Damn." Jacob rubs his face with both hands. "I was hoping Sam could handle this and I could stay with Bella."

"Don't think that's going to work. She needs her Alpha. You remember how scary it was, Jake. Don't leave her hanging."

Jacob snaps back, "Considering what she did to Bella, she's lucky I don't tear her throat out the second I see her."

"Accident, remember?" Bella admonishes.

"Fine," he grumbles.

"Be nice."

Jacob pouts. "No killing."

"No murder," Bella smiles.

"Justifiable homicide is more like it. Nobody messes with my girl." Jacob grins down at her. "Jared, tell Sam to hold down the fort until I get out there. I'll come when Rosalie gets back. Then I want you and Collin up here while she's giving Bella her stitches. I trust her, but Bella's blood smells too good to her. Make sure she stays safe, okay?"

Jared nods. "Will do. And Jake?"

"Hmm?"

"Put on some pants before you come outside. She doesn't need you flashing her. That's for sure." He tosses in a pair of Seth's shorts and jogs down the stairs.

"Oops, sorry 'bout that," Jacob apologizes.

Leah snorts. "We all know this isn't the closest Bella's gotten to your junk, Jacob. And you've flashed me plenty of times."

Bella giggles and then winces. "Ow. It hurts to move, so it hurts to laugh."

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea she was coming over. I wish I had been here to stop her."

"It's probably a good thing you weren't." Bella strokes the back of his hand where he cups her chin. "You'd have destroyed Sue's living room, not to mention probably killed Jasmine."

"Oh, that reminds me," Jacob mutters. "I'll get Jared and Collin to board up the front window and clean up the glass when Bella's safe."

"Thanks," Leah answers. "I don't mind the cold, but my mom will appreciate it. Want me to call Charlie?"

"Let's wait 'til Rose gets back. No need to panic him coming over and seeing my open wounds."

"Not like he's never seen you injured before, Bells," Jacob murmurs and strokes her hair.

She sighs. "That probably doesn't make it any easier, though."

Jacob frowns. "No. It doesn't." And he can't help but bend over to kiss the tip of her nose again.

She smiles and looks up at him. "That does make it better, Jake."

"Kisses?" he murmurs.

"Mmmhmm. Just your kisses, though. Nobody else's. I can feel that energy where your skin touches mine. It makes me feel better. And the kisses are the best."

"Really?" He lightly touches his lips to hers. "Then I'm not leaving when Rose gets back!"

She smiles up at him. "You have to."

"I'm staying until she's done with the stitches."

"I can't make you go?"

"Not if my touch makes you feel better." He runs the backs of his fingers along her cheeks to illustrate, and tingles radiate away from each spot his skin meets hers, banishing some of the pain.

"Okay," she smiles.

He keeps murmuring comforting, loving words and sweeping over her skin with calming touches until Rosalie returns. Jared enters with Collin, expecting to switch places with Jacob, but he sends them to clean the first floor. Jared confirms that Jacob's Alpha order still keeps Jasmine in place and safe for now, but hints that she is still out of her mind with terror and confusion. Jacob couldn't care less. His Bells needs him, so here he will stay. Sam has helped new wolves far more than he has anyway.

Bella hisses when Rosalie cuts her jeans off her, the tugging of the denim stuck to her wounds causing a terrible ripping sensation, then can't stand to look at the long, slender needle Rose uses to administer a local anesthetic. But both she and Jacob feel the awful sting the liquid causes. It brings tears to her eyes, which Jacob kisses away with impossibly soft lips. Once she is sufficiently numb, Rosalie thoroughly washes her wounds, cauterizes the bleeding with a small portable instrument, and then carefully sutures them shut. Even with her vampire speed, the seventy three sutures it requires to close the three deep gashes take nearly half an hour to place. Bella keeps her eyes trained on Jacob's the entire time to keep from fainting again. They both notice that Rosalie speaks the bare minimum, presumably the better to avoid breathing Bella's tempting blood.

And then Jacob has no more excuses. After asking Leah to grab one of her dresses, he wraps Bella in one of Leah's bathrobes and kisses her thoroughly just as Charlie pulls up in the cruiser. He carries her out to the car and gently places her in the passenger seat as her father frowns over his daughter's fresh injuries.

As Charlie starts the car, Jacob can't ignore Sam's howl any longer. He turns toward the sound and spots Jasmine's small orange wolf in the trees. He feels Bella's eyes on him and is about to turn to wave goodbye when his dark eyes lock with Jasmine's bright green ones.

And the world as he knows it changes.

X-x-x-x-X

Thanks again to my beta, Babs81410.


	23. Chapter 22

X-x-x-x-X  
March 22  
X-x-x-x-X

Jasmine is much, much too still, and as Jacob walks toward her he grows increasingly worried. No, no, no, no, no. Please, no. He knows that look. That blank, empty, unblinking stare. He saw it on Paul's face when he spotted Rachel for the first time. He has seen Sam's expression flatten every time Emily walks into a room. Jared and Quil look the same whenever they even think of Kim and Claire. And now it is aimed at him.

His wolf howls with rage inside him, screaming to be released. The animal wants none of it, wants nothing more than to tear Jasmine's throat out. The new wolf both injured his mate and threatens her happiness, and he would love to rip her to shreds. Jacob freezes in place just feet from the treeline, only yards away from Jasmine. He shakes and sweats with the effort not to phase. His control hangs by a thread. If he phases now, he will not be able to restrain the Alpha wolf inside him. He will sink his claws into her hip, rending her flesh where she sliced into his Bella. But he won't stop there. He will tear her limb from limb before he is done.

He moves out of her line of sight to gather his control. He squeezes his eyes shut, hands braced on his hips. He thinks of his Bella, his beautiful girl, the love of his life, and wants nothing more than to run after her, wrap his arms around her, and never let her go. He wants to walk away from this life he did not ask for, leave the pack to Sam, never see Jasmine again, and make something for himself somewhere else. For the first time, he is jealous of Leah and the world that is now open to her.

But he cannot run from his responsibilities. Even if he was willing to walk away from Jasmine, break her spirit and leave her imprint longing for him forever, an option that tempts him mightily, he cannot walk away from his pack, his father, his life, or his home. Another threat looms over them, and his brothers and sisters need their Alpha.

He wants to tell Bella once more that he loves her, only her, always her. But he dropped his phone in his backyard when he phased, and if he goes back inside Leah's house, Jasmine will hear him and fear he is abandoning her. She would then be more dangerous in her fear, not less.

But neither will he abandon the woman he loves. He needs a piece of himself with her. For she is comfort, warmth, joy, and love. He places his thumb and index finger between his lips and whistles. A minute later his eagle flutters down onto his bare, extended forearm. In his native tongue, which Jasmine has forgotten after years of disuse, he asks his taxilit to go to Bella and bring her his love. The ancient animal tilts it head at him. He imagines that he sees an amused cast to its expressionless face before it blinks at him and launches itself into the sky. He watches it until he is certain it is flying to Bella's home.

He steps into the forest. He can see her just a few yards away. She hasn't taken her eyes off him. He briefly scans his surroundings. Sam sits next to her in wolf form, looking between Jasmine and Jacob. The other wolves have gathered nearby. Everyone is silent. One by one they have phased back to human form, the emotions flooding the pack mind as she imprints too strong to bear, particularly when they each begin to think of Jacob's relationship with Bella. Sam is the only one who remains phased with her. Jacob wants to pull one of his brothers aside and find out what they have told Jasmine already. He wants a few more minutes (or better yet, years) to prepare for this. But he will know everything that transpired as soon as he phases in; anything else will just be a delaying tactic on his part. And how he wants to delay what comes next. But there is no point.

Not in his wildest nightmares did he ever consider that this might happen. He knew it was a possibility that he might imprint on a girl other than Bella, but he was fully prepared to fight the imprint off. He would sooner cut off his own arm before knowingly hurting the love of his life, but doing that would be easier than this.

What is he supposed to do with her?

Then he remembers his sister. His sister who is still seeing another man, who loves Paul in the way she is able and has managed to balance everyone's happiness, even her own. A spark of hope flares in his chest, and he squares his shoulders. He can do this.

But then he catches sight of Bella's dried, matted blood on Jasmine's right claw. He sees red and explodes in a rage. He leaps onto her with a giant roar, knocking her backward. He easily pins her to the ground.

As his pack sister and a lesser wolf, she cannot stand against him in battle. He is overwhelmed with fury, the image of his Bella lying unconscious in a pool of blood the only thing he can see, barely registering any of her emotions flooding the pack mind.

Faintly, he hears his brothers screaming at him to stop. And below him, Jasmine gives him no resistance. The most sickening part is that as her imprint, he holds omnipotence over her. As he hovers over her, snarling, teeth snapping just millimeters away from her muzzle, she bears her throat to him. It is not only a gesture of submission, but a welcoming of the death he wants to give her. She would die, would let him tear out her throat, gladly and without a second's hesitation. The thought nauseates him. The power he wields over her is both absolute and undeserved. He already hates using his Alpha orders on his pack. Only in the most desperate of situations does he consider doing so. But this is infinitely worse. In horror, he stumbles off her and into the woods, just out of her sight.

He finally allows himself to listen to her thoughts, his wrath mutating into despair.

And he is overwhelmed.

There is no one in the universe but him. She doesn't hear Sam trying to calm them down. She has lost sight of all her new brothers in the woods around her. She senses neither the damp chill in the air nor the darkness of the night falling upon them. She doesn't even register the fact that she is a wolf and not a human girl. The earth, the moon, the stars, the sun, the very air she breathes are Jacob_._

_Jacob? Jacob. _His name, a mantra. Her voice, reverent. His heartbeat, the only sound.

He steps out from behind the trees, and every object, every person, every other wolf, every tree, plant, cloud, rock, everything that surrounds them matters only in its orientation to him. The blades of grass beneath his paws grow to cushion his step. The wind that blows exists in order to stir his fur. The moon above reflects light only to illuminate his perfect form.

And she exists only because he looks at her. If he looks away, she will surely perish.

_Please, _he begs. _Remember who you were before this happened. What's happening to you now, it is going to bury you. Don't let it. Remember who you were. _He doesn't know if he can stop it, but he has to try.

But it backfires. She has no ability to shield a single thought from him. He sways on his feet, inundated by her emotions and her memories. She remembers a little girl enraptured by the bright smile of a little boy. She relives the fluttering in her chest at the sound of his laughter. She recalls the heat flooding through her at the touch of his hand to hers as he pulled her up when she fell or tugged her toward his friends to play a game. She replays the moment she saw him again after their long separation, and he feels the giddy energy that rushed through her at the sight of him standing in the doorway of Sue's house.

He sees himself as she sees him, and it is too much. It was already too much before she imprinted, and now it is everything. He isn't just her brother, or even just her Alpha. He is the only wolf. He isn't just the man to whom all other men will always be compared, nor the definition of what a man ought to be. He is the only man.

_I'm not. I'm not the only man. What's happening to you now is called imprinting. It can take over if you let it. Don't let it. _He is desperate, his gut churning with anger, revulsion, and pity, while in the background he feels a wave of guilt and remorse overtake Sam. He doesn't have time for Sam's guilt trip, so he ignores it.

_I don't understand, _she answers. She listens because he speaks to her, but doesn't have the slightest concept of what he means.He tries to separate his feelings from her own, but finds it impossible. She is horrified and frightened at what has just happened, but overriding that is the staggering and magnetic force that draws her to him. He senses a deep and confusing self loathing within her and realizes with mortification that it is due to his anger with her. He despises her for what she did to Bella and for what will inevitably be her future attempts to come between them, but as his imprint she both wants him deeply while simultaneously reflecting his own opinion of her. She hates herself because he hates her, but she has no idea why.

His anger at her fades at the realization. It is difficult to maintain his fury when her mind is so open to him, and what he sees there is so pathetic. It becomes easier to calm himself down. _Back up a bit. Tell me what they told you, what Sam told you while I was inside with Bella._

He feels her heart get crushed when he says Bella's name. He feels torn between being angry on Bella's behalf and pitying Jasmine, but he isn't going to pretend his lover doesn't exist. He shields her from his intimate memories, both since he knows it is all too much for her and also because he does not want to share his innermost feelings with this girl he hardly knows. But he refuses to leave his Bella behind. And he is unable to control his anger over the injury she suffered. She quails under the force of his pain. He still feels the throb in his leg and hip that is the reflection of hers, but moreover, his heart aches for Bella. He forces his voice into her mind. _Focus. Tell me what you know._

Her thoughts are a great jumble, but she is unable to ignore his request. _That I'm a... I'm a... werewolf._

_A shapeshifter. Yes. We all are, the eleven of us. We are protectors of our tribe. Keep going._

_That this happened because of the legends. _

_The legends tell the story of who we are. But they aren't the cause. _She doesn't have the same years worth of tales told around the bonfire to remind her, but nonetheless immediately gets a memory of Billy retelling the tales the week before for their school project. But in her mind's eye, Billy is only in the periphery. Jacob is at the center. Did she actually spend the entire time staring at him, or is this a vestige of the imprint? He prompts her to continue, _And do you understand what we are protecting the tribe against?_

She gets a flash of Rosalie in her mind. _The Cold Ones. _

_Yes. Vampires. But there are a few who are better than the others. _Involuntarily, an image of the supernova light inside Rosalie and the blue supergiant star inside Carlisle flashes in his mind. He doesn't dwell on it, but he still notices Sam's interest perk up. Deliberately, he pulls up mental images of each of the remaining Cullens one by one. _This coven used to maintain a home in Forks. First during the time of our great grandfathers, again in recent years, but no longer. We have a treaty with them. They are not to be harmed so long as they do not hunt humans, although they are not allowed to cross the borders of our land. These two, Carlisle and Rosalie, are the exceptions. _He pulls them forward in his mind's eye. _Seth and Leah were injured, and they came to our aid. And Rosalie is a friend._

Jasmine pictures Rosalie's disdainful face. _But she is why this happened to me?_

_Yes. By her presence and her words. We are all descendants of shifters in the past. The presence of vampires triggers the activation of the gene. Being angry triggers the shift._

_But I'm not stuck this way?_

_No. If you can calm down enough and focus on your human self, you can change back and forth at will. We all do. We'll teach you how._

_You'll teach me how? _she asks hopefully.

_We all will, _he clarifies.

_We? _The imprint has already caused her to forget the other wolves.

_We. Can you remember the others who phased in with you? They're all here. _

Everyone else's face is a blank slate to her. _Sort of, not really._ She can't see anyone except Jacob. He tries to hide his frustration.

_Sam, phase out and ask the guys to step forward one by one. In human form, please. Tell them to phase in at my signal. And get everyone who's inside the house, please. _Sam disappears, and they are alone in their minds.

_I'm glad he's gone, _Jasmine says guilelessly. She still hasn't taken her eyes off Jacob.

_Did Sam explain the other thing that happened?_

_I don't remember. He was talking, I think, but I couldn't hear him. All I could hear was you._

Jacob pauses, trying to figure out how to explain this without leading her on or hurting her deeply. He doesn't think it is possible. _It's called imprinting. It's something that only happens to wolves like us. _

_I think I remember! _And an old memory rises to the surface. They were both small, perhaps six or seven. She was sitting on her mother's lap around the bonfire, excited about the s'more her father was making for her in the flames. Jacob sat on a nearby log with chocolate all over his lips and hands, playfully trying to smear the gooey mess on one of his sister's shirts. Then Billy stood and told the story of Taha Aki imprinting on the woman who was to become his third wife. One word rang in her ears. Soulmate. _So you're my other half, Jacob? Or not even that. You are my soul, _she whispers.

_Not exactly, _he tries to slow her down.

_Yes. You are. You are everything, _she insists.

_No, I'm not, _he answers as steadily as he can. _The legends didn't explain everything. You are bound to me, yes, but we are going to have to figure out what that means for us. I'm your pack brother and your Alpha. _

_Am I your imprint? _She asks the question quietly, as she can already sense his response before he gives it.

He tries to sidestep the answer. He wants to talk with his father before he addresses this directly. _What happened to you just now never happened to me._

_Not even with her? _Jasmine pictures Bella in her mind.

_No, _he admits reluctantly, and a wave of relief sweeps over her. As firmly as he can, he continues, _I love her the old fashioned way. With all my heart and every fiber of my being. _He deliberately skips past his shared dreams with Bella, the metaphysical connection that ties their bodies together. Jasmine will learn soon enough, but there are more pressing matters at hand.

_I'm so sorry I hurt her. _In her open mind, he can see that she means this sincerely, though his admission of his feelings for Bella cause her pain. _Is she going to be okay? _

_I think so. Rosalie closed her wounds. _

She pictures Emily's scarred visage as she says quietly, _She'll never forgive me. _

Jacob is surprised at the statement. Does she desire Bella's forgiveness because she felt she did her a genuine wrong? Or does her imprint drive her to want what Jacob wants? _She's very forgiving. She said it was an accident and told me to take it easy on you. _Jacob is unable to hide the fact that he was ready to kill Jasmine for hurting Bella until she stopped him.

Jasmine's feelings for Bella are a jumble, her envy of the woman who holds Jacob's heart warring with gratitude.

Jacob tries to refocus her to basic orientation. She hasn't noticed their brothers and sister materializing out of the woods around them, but he has. The pack waits patiently and in silence. _You need to understand some basic concepts. First off, the members of the pack. I am the Alpha. The leader. I inherited that position from my great grandfather. _He nods to Sam, who steps forward but remains in human form. _Sam you know. _Jasmine doesn't even glance over, her eyes compelled to gaze upon Jacob by the force of her imprint. Jacob avoids an Alpha order, but instructs, _Look at him, please. I will introduce you to your family. _She reluctantly tears her eyes away and looks at Sam, who gazes back at her evenly. _He was the first to phase. He was the Alpha of the pack until I took over. He is the Beta of the pack, second in command. _Jacob gives out a soft, single bark, and Sam steps behind a tree to remove his clothing.

He phases in seconds later, and Jasmine startles at his sudden reappearance in her mind. _Hello, Jasmine._

Jacob explains, _Whenever a wolf is phased in, he or she joins the pack mind. That's why you can hear me right now. It's why you can hear Sam. This way we can communicate when we're hunting vampires, even over distances. With time, you'll learn to have some care over the thoughts you expose to the pack mind. We can see into each other's thoughts, so there's very little privacy._

Jasmine is immediately mortified. Suddenly knowing that others can hear her innermost thoughts results in an instantaneous recollection of things she doesn't want known, first and foremost among them her longstanding feelings for Jacob and jealousy of Bella. _Oh my god. You know everything?_

Jacob bristles at the onslaught. He begins to pace to work off some of the energy that his wolf wants to unleash on Jasmine. He ruthlessly stamps down his base urge to defend Bella against her, but she senses his anger anyway and is appalled. _It's one of the worst things about being a wolf. Knowing everything about everybody else and vice versa. You'll get used to it, and you'll get better at hiding things. Try to focus. _He says it as much for his own benefit as for hers.

Next, Jacob turns to Leah, and she steps forward. He debates whether to explain the complicated dynamic between Sam, Emily, and Leah, but decides he needs to get through basic introductions first. If he starts talking about imprinting with her, they won't stop, and then she'll be stuck in her wolf form indefinitely. Leah ties her dress on a long cord around Jasmine's neck. _I don't have to introduce Leah. She's getting you these clothes so you have something to wear when you phase back. She was the first female wolf ever to phase. You are the second. Until she phased, we didn't even know it could happen to girls. It's been hard on Leah being the only girl. She'll probably be able to help you a lot. She isn't going to phase in right now. She got injured by a vamp a few days ago and she shouldn't phase. Seth is a wolf as well, but he isn't here right now. He'll help you a lot when he gets back. _

With these words, it finally starts to dawn on her that Jacob will not be staying with her forever, perhaps not even tonight, and she begins to panic. _I don't think he'll be able to help me the way that you can. _

He deliberately misses her point. _Each wolf has different strengths and can teach you something different. Each one is going to become important to you if they aren't already. _She listens to him silently and in dismay, wanting only to be left alone with him. But the more she wants, the less he is inclined to give. He presses forward. He nods to Brady, who also phases in. _Pretty much your whole family are wolves._

_Hey, Jasmine. You know how you thought I was sneaking out at night and, like, getting into trouble? I was on patrol._

_Patrol? _

Jacob answers, _Like Sam said before, we're protectors. We keep our land and the people here safe from the Cold Ones. There's always at least one or two wolves patrolling for threats. _

_Me too?_

_We all do. You won't be alone when you patrol. _

_You'll be with me? _She is still so hopeful. Is this how it will always be? Her hoping and him crushing that hope? He already hates it. But he refuses to consider the alternative. It would crush him.

_Sometimes, I guess. You'll get to know everybody really well. Let's keep going. _Jacob turns to Collin, who steps forward and gives Jasmine a little wave. Jacob has to remind her to look at him before he, too, goes behind a tree to phase.

_Hi. We met a couple times at the holidays. I'm Collin. Jake's cousin. _

Jasmine actually looks between Brady and Collin before asking Jacob, _Does this always happen to kids?_

_Not always. More wolves phase when there are more vampires. The coven that used to live here wasn't the only reason we phased. We had to fight off an army of vampires, and it triggered more wolves to phase. The only ones who were still available were the kids. _

_Hey, we're not kids! _Brady protests.

_No, _Jacob agrees sadly, for the boys, for himself, for every single one of them, and for the future they once thought they had, and even for Jasmine. _Not anymore. _He continues, _Our fathers were too old to phase when the Cullens moved back, otherwise they'd be the current pack. And maybe our mothers, who knows. Let's keep going. _He turns to Jared, who also stands before Jasmine in his human form before phasing in.

_Hello, sister. We met before. I'm Jared, and my imprint is Kim. _

They all feel the hope in her mind when he says this. _I remember her. She's your girlfriend, right? _As he answers in the affirmative, she glances at Jacob again, then at Sam and Leah. And the puzzle pieces fall into place. _And Emily must be your imprint?_

_Yes. _He doesn't elaborate. _She is. _

She doesn't mean to for her thoughts to be broadcast, but she has no way to stop them. _So imprints are romantic partners, just like your dad tells in the legends. _

_Not always,_ Jacob answers. _Paul imprinted on my sister Rachel, and they aren't involved that way._

_Oh. _She is unable to hide her disappointment, and is then deeply embarrassed by it. Jacob decides that after helping her shift back to human, shielding her thoughts is the next thing to learn.

Jared, who makes no secret of the fact that he thinks imprinting on Kim is the best thing that ever happened to him, jumps in. _But they're very close. Best friends even though the imprint only happened over the summer. My bet is that they're going to end up together sooner or later. _

Jacob, now even more frustrated, barely suppresses a growl at Jared. He says in a low but firm voice, _It isn't inevitable. She has a boyfriend who isn't Paul. _

_For now, _Jared plunges ahead thoughtlessly.

Jacob regains Jasmine's attention easily, not really bothering to mask his annoyance. Jared quiets immediately, and she naturally focuses on anything her imprint says or does. _There is still one more wolf joining us tonight, and we also need to introduce those who are away. _He nods at Quil.

As soon as he phases in, Quil wags his tail at Jasmine. _Jasmine! _He can't contain his enthusiasm. _You're one of us!_

She can't help but smile at his good natured greeting. _Yeah. Guess I am. _

_I'm so glad you're joining us! I know everything is overwhelming right now, but you aren't going through it alone, okay? We're all here for you. _He says warmly, _Don't listen to a single thing these jokers tell you. You want the truth, you come to me, okay?_

Jacob notices gratefully that she actually seems reassured by this. Perhaps he can take advantage of the fact that Quil and Jasmine are friends, and even of Quil's unusual imprint. _Quil has an imprint as well. He's like the best brother she could ever have asked for. _

Quil immediately pictures young Claire in his mind, and Jasmine reacts with the same surprise that everyone does. _Here's my sweet girl. _

_So you're..._

_Her big brother. It's what she needs from me, so that's what I am. _

Sam chimes in, _Imprints aren't all the same. It all depends on what's best for your imprint. _Jacob stops to see if he has any further insight as to his own complicated situation, but in his wolf form, this is the closest he can come to admitting the truth.

So he decides to finish the introductions. _So Seth and Paul aren't here right now, but the two of them plus Embry are the rest of the pack. And now you too. _

_So what now? _she asks.

_Try to phase back. That's the first thing. It'll probably take a while. _

Sam adds, _It took me two weeks my first time. But I was alone, no other wolves at all, and I had no idea what was going on. Thought I'd lost my mind. We won't let that happen to you. We won't leave you alone, and we'll help you through it. _

Jacob explains, _Jared and Brady were on patrol when you phased. Quil and Sam are up for the night shift. I have day shift tomorrow with Collin._

_So you're leaving? _her voice trembles with anxiety. _Already?_

Jacob debates with himself silently. He can't quite shield Jasmine from his baseline emotions, but he has regained enough control not to allow the pack to see his detailed thoughts. There is only one place he wants to be: in Bella's bed kissing away her pain. But he doesn't want to leave Jasmine here with just Jared and Brady. Talking to Jared will just reinforce impressions of imprinting that he wants to quash before they get out of control. Perhaps he can leave when Sam and Quil take over. Sam has more experience than any of them at helping new wolves learn to control themselves, and after his recent realizations about his feelings for Leah and Emily, Jacob hopes he can give a more balanced perspective on imprinting. Even better, Jasmine is already more comfortable with Quil than any of the rest of them, and since he currently has no romantic feelings toward Claire, Jacob feels safe leaving them alone together. _Not yet. I'll stick around for a while, but I have to go see how Bella is doing, and I have to talk to my dad. The other guys are going to phase out now. I want you to pay close attention to what they do to phase out. Collin, why don't you go first and clean up the mess in the Clearwaters' living room. There's some spare planking in my garage. Can you board up the window?_

_Sure thing. See you later._

Jasmine does as he asks and turns her attention to Collin. Had anyone else asked her to focus on anyone other than him, she would simply have been unable. But as both her Alpha and her imprint, she is able to follow the instruction. She watches, fascinated, as Collin steps behind a tree and disappears from the pack mind, reappearing as a human boy and trotting away.

_How did he do that?_

_He had to be calm and concentrate, _Jacob answers.

_I don't get it._

_Watch again. Quil, why don't you go next?_

_Are you sure you don't want me to just stick around? I'm supposed to be back in an hour anyway._

_It'll help for her to watch how we phase in and out. Plus I was hoping you could go tell my dad what happened; let him know I'm going to be a while._

_No problem. See you soon, Jasmine! _And in the blink of an eye, human Quil steps into view and grins at her. He waves and jogs off.

_Sam, do you need to go home for a bit? _A few months ago, there would have been no question that Sam would have been compelled to talk to Emily before doing anything else. But he has not even been home since returning from Seattle. He had actually requested the night shift from Jacob, who understood the unspoken reason was to have an excuse not to sleep in their bed.

_I'd like to tell Em what's going on. _In fact, he figures he will give her as little information as possible, speaking with her only briefly, and will return as soon as possible. This is a good way to see her while still having a perfect reason to immediately leave.

Jacob agrees and reminds Jasmine to pay attention to the process as Sam changes into his human form. Leah, who still stands nearby, studiously looks at her feet as he walks past her. He obviously wants to say something to her. But he only pauses in his walk, realizing she isn't going to look up, and reluctantly goes on his way.

_Jared, go ahead and finish your patrol. The way things are going, tonight would be the night we get an attack. _The two nod and run off. He turns back to Jasmine. _I'm going to phase out for a second so I can talk to Leah. _He feels her instant panic at the thought of him leaving, and the knot in his gut twists further. He gives her a task. _We're not going anywhere. Try to get used to seeing through someone else's eyes. Just stay here and watch the patrol route. Don't move. Brady, sit with her until I get back. _

He steps behind the grove of trees and feels her eyes on him the whole way. He is careful to stay entirely out of sight as he phases out. If at all possible, she isn't going to catch a glimpse of him naked. Then he quietly calls out to Leah, and they walk back to her house together. He is careful not to say anything until they are inside the house, and even then he lowers his voice to the quietest whisper so that Jasmine doesn't hear. Rosalie has already cleaned up all the broken glass and straightened the furniture and is seated calmly in the armchair flipping through a magazine.

"So, you know, fuck. Please tell me that did not just happen." He runs his hand through his hair in frustration.

Dryly, Rosalie answers, "That did not just happen."

He lets out a startled bark of a laugh. "Cool. Can I wake up now?"

"Nope, sorry. You're stuck here in Hell with us," Leah answers.

"What do I do? Can I run away?"

Surprisingly, Leah answers, "Yeah. You can."

"Will that help?"

Leah nods. "Honestly? Some things, sure." Rosalie snorts in response.

"Leah, I think I like your answers. So I'm going to keep asking you questions."

"Go for it," she grins.

"Should I run away?"

She tilts her head at him. "Don't think that would work for long. You'd guilt yourself into coming back."

He sighs heavily. "Yeah. I would."

Rosalie interrupts. "I gather something unpleasant just happened? More unpleasant that that bitch ripping into Bella's leg?"

Leah nods. "Jasmine just imprinted on Jake."

Rosalie's eyes grow wide. This is the first event that has surprised her in quite some time. "Did you imprint back?"

Jacob frowns. "I don't think so."

Rosalie quirks a brow. "Don't think so? How could you not know?"

"No," he says more firmly. "I didn't."

"Are you sure?" Leah says gently.

"I love Bella!" he growls back.

Leah smiles at him sadly. "I didn't say you don't. I know you love Bella. Everybody knows you love Bella. People who have never met you know that you love Bella. That wasn't the question."

"Well," he scowls, "I don't feel like she's the center of the universe, I don't want to go make puppies with her, and the only thing I want to do is run to Bella's and climb in the window. So I'm going to go with no, I didn't imprint on the bitch who cut up my girlfriend."

Leah crosses her arms over her chest and looks at him appraisingly. "You should probably talk to your dad."

"I know, I want to."

"You should tell him everything, Jake."

"I know."

"I mean _everything_." She blatantly refers to the arousal he feels at Jasmine's touch.

"Fine." He shuffles his feet and looks at the floor. "If I go now I can catch him before he goes to sleep."

"Are you going to?"

"No. She already nearly killed Bella tonight. She's not safe like this. Jared and Brady can't keep her calm. Maybe not even Sam and Quil."

Leah nods. "Only you can keep her calm."

He nods reluctantly. "Yeah. Son of a bitch."

Rosalie says offhandedly, "I used to think the concept of imprinting was romantic." At the glares of her friends, she shrugs. "Obviously not anymore."

"Thanks for taking care of Bella," Jacob says sincerely.

Leah teases, "And not, you know, mopping up the spare blood with your tongue."

"A lady has manners, you know," Rosalie smirks. Then she looks hopeful. "Maybe I can really do this doctor thing."

Leah turns back to Jacob. "I'm gonna drive her home, okay?" They both know Rosalie doesn't need an escort, but the girls probably want to talk where they can't be heard, so he just nods and watches them walk away.

On the way to the car, Rosalie tosses Leah her phone, saying, "On a more pleasant topic, your phone has been ringing off the hook. Seattle number. I may not be psychic like Alice, but I think I see a tall, dark, and handsome man in your future." Leah grins as she pulls the phone out of the air. "It's him, right?"

"Yeah."

Leah opens her voicemail and then both girls giggle at the babyish squealing they hear, "Puppy!"

"At least someone's happy tonight," Jacob mutters under his breath. He dallies as long as he can, pausing at the now destroyed couch cushions. He smells traces of his Bella in the room, but it is contaminated with Jasmine's scent too. He heaves a heavy sigh before heading back outside.

Jasmine visibly perks up when he returns. She had been obeying his instruction to start watching through the eyes of her brothers, but the anxiety she felt in his slight absence is obvious as soon as he phases in. _Everything okay? _she asks.

He is tempted to reply that no, everything is the opposite, but instead he answers, _Sure. Jared, go ahead and run your route. _They watch him sprint away. Jacob continues, _I'm not sure when Leah's coming back. When she can phase in, or when you can phase out, you should spend some time with her. It's hard being the only girl in the pack. I'm sure she can tell you things that none of the rest of us can't. It's too bad she can't phase in right now. _

_As long as you're here, I'll be fine. _As soon as the thought escapes her, she is flustered for admitting it, but she has no way to stop it.

He isn't able to hide his frustration. _I can't always be here. It simply isn't possible._

_How does everyone else handle that?_

_Differently. Jared and Kim practically live together. They see each other all day long at school, then he sneaks in her bedroom window at night. _Jared doesn't deny it.

_Sam and Emily you know about, sort of. Some other time we'll tell you more about that, but the long and short of it is that he's really still in love with Leah._

_How? _She sounds absolutely incredulous.

_He loved Leah first. Of his own free will. Emily was thrust upon him. His feelings for Leah didn't just stop all of a sudden, although the imprint did make it hard for him to remember how he felt about her. _

She says nothing back, but she doesn't understand what he means at all. Her own memories of her life feel as if they belong to someone else entirely. The only ones she can see with any clarity are the ones that include him. Jared listen silently. Jacob feels him bristling at Jacob's assessment of imprinting, but he says nothing against his Alpha.

Jacob presses on. _It's different for Quil and Paul. Claire lives up on the Makah rez, so Quil just visits when he can. My sister Rachel is in Seattle. She and Paul see each other around once a week normally, but they can't always manage that. _

_How do they survive that? _The thought of being away from Jacob for ten minutes, let alone ten days, horrifies her.

Thoughtlessly, Jared mumbles, _I have no idea. _

Exasperated, Jacob growls at Jared, _Not helpful! It's what's right for them. That's how. _

_What's right for us? _She asks guilelessly.

Jacob can't help but picture Bella in his mind. He knows what is best for himself. Her. Jasmine recoils at the image before growling unintentionally at the knowledge that Jacob wants nothing more than to crawl in bed with Bella.

His temper flares, and he bares his teeth at her with a snarl. She instantly quails. _I know that what happened was an accident. _He picture her lovely thigh sliced open and bleeding. _But don't push it. _His tone is a clear warning.

_I'm sorry. Please don't go yet!_

He sits on his haunches and chuffs. _Not yet. Look, it's hard to remember, but you need to focus on the fact that I'm not the only other person around. Like Paul, for example. He's got a girlfriend named Elle. You've met her, remember? At New Year's?_

Jasmine struggles to recall. It is terribly fuzzy, but at Jacob's insistence she succeeds. But rather than seeing hope in Paul's experience, she sees reason for fear. That isn't what she wants. Not at all. She knows that Jacob tells her these things to prepare her for the inevitable time when he will return to Bella's arms, and it crushes her. She starts to tremble, and he is concerned she is becoming more dangerous as he speaks rather than less.

_Look, _Jacob sighs, _you'll be okay. Let's go for a run and burn off some of your energy. You'll feel better. The speed is amazing. And we'll talk more and wait for Sam and Quil. _He notices she perks up at his suggestion, and they set off.

Like all the shifters, she loves the speed. The exhilarating sensation is enough to distract her as he had hoped. She is slower than average, probably due to her size. She is even smaller than Leah, perhaps due to the fact that she phased very quickly after beginning the change, giving her no time to grow taller. Jacob decides it must have been Rosalie's very recent appearance that triggered her.

The train of thought nearly derails her. Recalling Rosalie brings up all her questions regarding the Cold Ones. Jacob welcomes the inquiries. At this point, he appreciates anything that gets her mind off him. Soon, Jared and Brady phase out when Sam and Quil phase in. Jacob wants to ask how things went with Emily, but this isn't the right time or place to ask. Instead, another round of questioning from Jasmine begins. Ironically, the safest thing to talk about are vampires and the threat they pose. It is so much less emotionally charged than discussing their imprint, and it is information she needs. Her mind swirls with all the new information she has learned, enough that she keeps slowing down in her run as she gets distracted.

Around two in the morning, Jacob suggests that he will try to go home and get some sleep before he has to return for the daytime patrol. Jasmine responds with an involuntary panic attack. In the pack mind, they can all feel her breathing turn into gasps and her chest become tight. She stops by the ocean's edge and shakes in place. She doesn't want to ask him to stay again, knowing he needs to sleep at some point, but she is unable to stop her fear. It isn't just that his presence in the pack mind calms her. Her gut churns when he thinks of Jacob joining Bella in her bedroom.

Jacob sighs and sits on his haunches next to her. _Aren't you getting tired too?_

_I'm exhausted, but I'm wired too,_ she admits.

_I know what that's like. We all do. Especially in the times leading up to a battle. Your nerves are all on edge but you're more tired than you've ever been. Or the opposite happens. Night patrols can get pretty boring, but you've got to keep running anyway without any energy. _

Sam suggests, _How about trying to phase back? _

_Yeah. I'd love to. But I still don't get how. At all._

Jacob says, _It's all about calming down and focusing on your human body. _

_I'm afraid it's going to hurt the way it hurt when I turned into this,_ she answers.

Jacob, Sam, and Quil all reassure her that phasing back to human is comfortable if only she can learn to do it, and future transitions into her wolf will not hurt the way the first one did.

_How did you all figure it out the first time?_

Sam answers,_ We focused on things that calm us down. We concentrated on things that made us happy and feel whole._

_Like what?_

Quil answers immediately. _I was pretty damn happy when I phased. I mean, beforehand, it seemed like all my friends had abandoned me, when actually they were just trying to keep me safe by being away from them. Everything made so much more sense when I shifted, plus I got my buddies back instantly. I loved the feeling of running, the power, the rush. So calming down for me was settling down and being less giddy and hyper. I ran out a lot of my energy, that helped._

Jasmine responds, _I don't think that's my issue. What about you, Jacob?_

Quietly, he answers, _I thought about Bella. I was probably supposed to phase sooner than I did, but I was so happy spending time with her that it delayed my phasing._

_Oh. _She doesn't want to know more. What Jacob has just told her makes her more agitated, not less. And she knows Jacob doesn't appreciate how she feels about him, so thinking about him won't calm her down any so long as he is around to listen to her thoughts. _How about you, Sam?_

Sam admits reluctantly, _I thought about what it feels like to hold Leah. Before, I was so focused on thinking I'd gone crazy, or after that, desperately wanting to see her. But then I just got frustrated and angry at what had happened. I had to set that aside and focus on how good it would feel to be with her again while somehow not being frustrated that I couldn't. It was nearly impossible, which is why it took me so long to phase back._

_Okay. Thinking about Leah isn't going to give me those warm fuzzies. Maybe I'll try Quil's approach and run 'til I'm too tired to go any further. _

_Sure! _Quil responds enthusiastically. _Wanna race north to the Strait? Or all the way to Canada?_

She answers with an honest laugh. _Sure. Let's start with the Strait, though._

Jacob offers, _How about I cover Quil's patrol route while you guys go for the run?_

Jasmine is grateful for the suggestion. Even though she won't be right next to Jacob, having him in the pack mind will keep her calm. She and Quil set off at a rapid clip. It takes almost two hours for the two of them to run there and back. By the time they return, she is exhausted, but still too worked up to actually return to human form.

Quil offers, _You want to try to get a little sleep? I know it sounds weird, but it's really not hard to sleep outside in your wolf body. _

_Maybe, _she answers skeptically.

_Come on. I'll show you a good spot. _

Jacob and Sam are largely silent during the exchange. Jasmine seems as calm as she has since she phased, and neither of them wants to disturb her equilibrium. Jasmine curls up on a bed of moss under a large oak, and she finally does manage to fall asleep around five AM with Quil standing protectively nearby.

_Go get some sleep, _Sam tells Jacob. _We've got this. _

_Ugh. And then be back in three hours. _

_Take an extra two, _Quil offers. _I'll cover for you. You've been up all night long, and I know tomorrow, or today rather, is going to be a long day. _

_Just as long as it doesn't get any worse, _Jacob sighs. _I'd like to say it couldn't, but unfortunately I've learned that things can always get worse. Thinking otherwise is just tempting fate. _He starts to run home. _Thanks, man. I'll take you up on your offer. _

Jacob retrieves his clothes and phone from the yard, then finds Billy stretched out on the couch when he walks in his front door. His father must have fallen asleep waiting for him. He tucks a blanket around Billy and pads off to bed, too tired to wash the grime off his body. His room smells like Bella, and his pillowcase is missing the hem where he ripped it off to keep his scent in his pocket. He pouts to himself as he falls face first into the pillow. He would much rather be in Bella's bed right now, but he needs to talk to his father when he wakes up. Before he even completes the thought, he drifts off to sleep.

_And his Bella awaits him in his bed. She is fast asleep with her arms wrapped around one of his pillows and her hair tousled around her head. She smells sweet and looks peaceful. He smiles down at her and pulls back the sheets to reveal her clad only in one of his tee shirts. She couldn't be more beautiful if she tried. _

_He rakes his eyes over her long, shapely legs. Her skin beckons to him. He sits next to her and runs his hands up the outsides of her thighs, drawing the hem of his shirt up as he goes. He finds himself oddly pleased and surprised when he discovers that her flesh is smooth, soft and unmarred, although for the life of him, he cannot remember why he should feel this way. _

_He slips in next to her, gently brushing her hair aside so that he might kiss the side of her neck. _

_"Mmm." She tilts her head to the side and bares her neck further. "Where have you been?" she mumbles. _

_"I'm here," he murmurs into the spot behind her ear that sends shivers down her spine, then kisses his way down to her sensitive clavicle, tugging aside the collar of his shirt for proper access._

_"Oh," she moans and threads her fingers through his thick hair, tugging at his scalp in a truly delicious fashion that makes him growl. "You're here?"_

_She spreads her legs and he settles his hard form between them. He captures her lips in a nearly bruising kiss until she is panting and gasping beneath him. When he comes up for air, he bunches up the bottom of his shirt around her waist and grips her hips in his hands. Against her lips he whispers, "I'm here."_

But then suddenly he is gone, torn from paradise as soon as he arrived. A panicked howl and pounding on his door awaken him. He slams his fists into the mattress beneath him in frustration as Billy yells from the hallway, "You need to get back out there, son. It's not going well without you. Get up!"

He sits up and looks out the window. Jasmine's agitated orange wolf paces right in the middle of the backyard.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks, as always, to my beta, Babs81410.


	24. Chapter 23

X-x-x-x-X  
March 22  
X-x-x-x-X

Bella waits and waits for Jacob to arrive, but he never does. She knew this would be a possibility, but hoped he would be able to find a way to see her again tonight. Her heart pounds with anxiety. She saw it happen. She can't be absolutely certain, but she saw the way Jasmine stared at Jacob from her place in the trees. It was the same expression she saw on Paul's face when he imprinted on Rachel. It was distinctly odd to see it on the face of a wolf, but unmistakable. Her heart started pounding and she broke out into a sweat. She wasn't sure if it was because of her own fear or Jacob's corresponding reaction.

Terrified, she looked to Jacob as her father steered the cruiser away. But his back was turned to her and revealed nothing. He had stopped in his tracks and had not moved an inch until he faded from her sight. It terrified her. Was he imprinting back on Jasmine in the same moment? Was that the arousal he had been feeling at the other girl's touch? Tears sprang to Bella's eyes, and she rapidly brushed them away. Charlie, thankfully, cleared his throat awkwardly and asked her if her wounds hurt, and she nodded and sniffed and said yes, but she would be okay. In fact, the stitches were still entirely numb from the anesthetic Rosalie had administered.

Charlie broke her train of thought by asking what had happened. She sighed and explained Jasmine's sudden and violent transformation. "So that's what the broken window's about, huh?"

"Yeah. I was right next to her. I don't know how much worse it might have been if Rosalie hasn't knocked her away. Leah would normally have been able to help more, but she can't phase for now."

"Although maybe that's for the best. You don't need to be caught between two wolves."

"I'm just glad Rose had the restraint not to, you know, eat me."

Charlie made a sound that was half chuckle and half sigh. "Whatever happened to your normal friends? Do you have any?"

"Uh, there's a couple girls I talk to at school."

"Are they ghosts or something?" Charlie asked dryly.

"Haha."

"Heh. You know I love Jacob like a son. And considering the trouble that follows you around, it's a good thing he can keep you safe when I can't. I'm sure he isn't letting that new wolf anywhere near you again."

"I told him not to kill her."

"I'm sure he wants to after what she did to you. Hell, if she comes around, I might just get my shotgun out."

Bella chewed on her bottom lip and considered what to tell her father. "I don't think she likes me much. I can't imagine her wanting to come around."

Charlie frowned. "Do you think she hurt you deliberately?"

"No! No one had any idea she'd phase, least of all her. If Jacob or Leah had seen it coming, they'd have done something about it."

Bluntly, Charlie said, "So she was just jealous in the normal way, huh?"

Bella stared at him in surprise. "You knew?" She liked to think of Charlie as oblivious, but slowly she was realizing it was all probably an act to allow him to observe everything around him. He probably knew Jacob sneaked into her room every night and, for some reason, hadn't said anything. Maybe his ignorance was affected, but his discomfort at the prospect of discussing sex with her was not. She had stuttered as he asked her if she was being safe when she and Jacob had started dating officially, his face bright red and eyes looking anywhere but into hers. He had gruffly grunted an incomprehensible response when she, face equally crimson, had muttered, "Mmmyeah, uh huh." Then he had disappeared for hours. She had actually called Jacob to make sure Charlie hadn't appeared on his doorstep with a loaded gun. They never spoke of it again.

He laughed, "I'm old, not blind, Bells. She's not very subtle, or wasn't the couple times I've seen her. Obviously she likes your boyfriend, so she's bound to take it out on you."

"It's more than a normal crush," she said as she sank down further into her seat. It was odd talking to her dad this way, but now that he knew all about the shifters, he understood better than most. And she couldn't help but express some of her worry.

"What do you mean?"

"I think she might have just imprinted on him," she whispered. She tried to hide the tears that well up in her eyes.

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "How can you tell?"

"I saw it as we were driving away. She wasn't just looking at him. It was way more than that. It looked like the way Paul did when he imprinted on Rachel. It's the way Sam looks so blankly blissful at Emily, or Quil at Claire, Jared and Kim."

"You could see that? She's a wolf. How could you read her expression?"

"I just know," she sniffed. "Maybe because Jacob knows."

To her surprise, Charlie answered, "Then she's getting a raw deal."

"What? What do you mean?"

Her father glanced at her as he turned out of the reservation. "That boy loves you. Just adores you. He looks at you the way Billy looked at Sarah. Nothing's going to change that."

"But what if he imprints on her right back? What if he just did?" She couldn't help the fear from tumbling out.

Charlie reached out to awkwardly pat her elbow. "Bells, honey, he walked right out of his own damn body to find you and bring you home safe. He ripped apart vampires to get to you, then tricked the most powerful coven in the world into leaving you alone. Have a little faith."

And she did feel a bit better after that. And when they pulled into their driveway a few minutes later, as Charlie helped her out of the car, he pointed to the tree outside her bedroom window. "Bells, look! An eagle! Is it Jacob's?"

She looked between Charlie and the magnificent bird. "You know about that?"

He snorted. "I've known Billy Black since I was six years old, Bella. Now that the cat's out of the bag about the tribe's powers, there aren't any secrets left about anything. Thank god, too. We needed something new to talk about."

"I wish our lives weren't such great fodder for gossip," she sighed as she leaned on his arm to make her way up the driveway.

"Me too. You have no idea how much. I was freaked out when you came to live with me. Happy like you wouldn't believe, but scared out of my mind about your status as a teenage girl. A boy I could have related to, or if you were still a little kid I'd have known what to do. But every father of girls lives in fear of them becoming teenagers." Father and daughter stopped on the front porch to look up at the eagle, which was ruffling its feathers and staring down at them. "I was horrified that you might want to date, and then that Cullen kid started coming around, and I thought there was something off about him. But not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined just how screwed up he really was, or how badly he'd turn your life inside out. After he left and came back, after he hurt you so badly, I was so tempted never to allow him within a hundred feet of you. At the time I didn't do anything of the sort. I've seen too many parents push their kids too far, or vice versa, and then you've got a runaway on your hands who gets into all kinds of trouble. And you disappeared twice anyway, and I was sure if I made the wrong move you'd be gone again. So I didn't do anything. Man, do I ever wish I had."

As she settled onto the couch, wondering to herself at the fact that he has said more substantive things to her in the past half hour than in the past three years combined, then feeling terribly guilty about what she put him through, she answered, "It's not your fault. I can't imagine what you could have possibly done to stop me from seeing him. I was pretty determined and desperate, and so was he."

"Yeah," he chuckled darkly. "That I knew. In retrospect, I should have gone to get Jake a lot more often. He's the only one who had a shot of getting anywhere."

She frowned and looked at her feet. "I hate to say it, but that wouldn't have done it either. I needed to figure it out on my own. Jake told me a hundred times that he was better for me. Said so, showed me with everything he did, everything he felt. Even Edward admitted it once. I was just too scared to admit it myself."

"That boy was really a monster. No two ways about it. Had his whole family under his spell too. I like Dr. Cullen, don't get me wrong, but he should have seen it coming." Charlie wanders into the kitchen and comes back two minutes later with a bowl of chicken soup. Having this discussion is as far out of his comfort zone anything he has done in years, but not talking more with Bella resulted in disaster before, and he isn't about to make the same mistake twice. "Campbell's isn't half as good as yours, but it's better than the few alternatives we've got in there."

"No, this is good." She took a few sips and glanced back outside at the eagle. It gazed at her placidly. "What do you think it means?"

"What, Jacob's eagle?"

"Mm hmm."

"Um, company?" Charlie mumbled awkwardly while peering at the bird. "I mean," he cleared his throat. "That he doesn't want you to be alone. Like I said, he feels about you the way his dad feels about his mom to this very day. Why do you think Billy's still single?"

"I've never thought about that at all," she answered honestly.

"He may be in a wheelchair, but he's a pillar of his community, he's got quite a way with words, and I'm told he's a pretty decent looking fellow. He's the chief, for goodness' sake. If he wanted a romantic partner, he'd have one. But he had his one great love, he'll never fall out of love with her, no matter how long she's gone. She's it for him, period."

"Did he tell you that?" She had a hard time imagining her father having such an emotional conversation with another man. She could hardly believe he was having this conversation with her.

Charlie flushed and stammered, "Well, not sober. But Jim Beam is like truth serum for that man. And his boy looks at you the way he looked at Sarah. It's just how the Black men are. Jake's grandpa too. I used to tease Billy mercilessly about how his parents were with each other. It was awful," he laughed. "They couldn't keep their hands off each other, and they were always giving each other mooney eyes across the dinner table. It was awful. So I wouldn't worry about Jacob. If anything, worry about the other girl. If she imprinted on him, she's just going to get her heart broken. And if Jacob proves me wrong, I'll put a bullet in him. Okay?"

She had laughed and managed to calm down at these words. She had asked him why he never dated after Renee, now that she understood how Billy wasn't going to date after Sarah, and to her utter shock he revealed that he had. He had also admitted to an embarrassing habit of dumping his girlfriends before her childhood summer visits. This had become less of an issue when she started refusing to come, but his last girlfriend had broken up with him after he arrested her brother for a DUI and refused to "just let it go", which coincidentally occurred about two months before Bella moved back for good.

Bella was appalled that she knew so little about her father, but otherwise her decent mood lasted until Charlie had helped her up to bed. By then, the anesthetic that Rosalie gave her had worn off, so she winced all the way up the stairs, and her leg throbbed as she tried to find a comfortable position.

And there she lies still. As the minutes tick past, then the hours, she grows more and more anxious. She even calls Leah around two AM to see if she knows what is going on, but gets no answer. She would call Billy too if if wasn't so late. She stares at the eagle perched outside her window, and she wonders what she will do if Jacob has imprinted back on Jasmine. She has gotten so used to Jacob's tenacious devotion to her that she doesn't know what to do in order to fight for it. For him.

And should she? If his gods have picked out this woman, of all the women in the world, to be his, should she stand in their way? All Bella has brought him is trouble. The day she drove to his house with two broken motorcycles in the back of her truck was the day she overturned his life for the worst. She brought monsters down on his head, nearly got him killed on more than one occasion, nearly got his friends killed, and broke his heart time and time again.

On the other hand, Jasmine has done him no harm, has apparently loved him her whole life, and fits very neatly into his life and his world. Jasmine has never rejected him or broken his heart. She can defend herself against any threats that appear, can fight alongside Jacob's side. She can live a long life with him, not aging by his side, then stop phasing when they decide together to do so and give him children. Whereas Jacob would have to stop phasing for Bella.

She knows he is worried that she wants to leave him. He feels guilty that he has trapped her here in this small town. She knows he is afraid that she will take Edward's money and go have adventures without him. But the opposite is true. The only thing that scares her now is losing him. And it might be happening at this very moment. It might have already happened.

Finally, she opens her window in the hopes that he will crawl through it tonight, not minding the cold but wishing for his warmth to shelter her from it. Instead, the eagle lands on her windowsill and stares at her with an unflinching gaze.

It is good enough. It is his herald, and it is here with her. She finally falls into a fitful sleep.

_And through the fog, she spots the little red house. The night is dreary, but the house beckons to her through the dark. She turns the knob and finds the house still and silent. No one is here. _

_She enters his bedroom, stripping off her clothes and donning one of his shirts. It smells of the pine needles, earth, and spring rain that characterize his scent, and she finds comfort in the reminder of him. She parts the curtains of his window and sees the forest of his people, but rather than the bare yard between the house and the treeline, the forest encroaches on the house. There is no movement outside and no sign of him. So she slips between his sheets and buries her face in his pillow. She waits for him in his bed until she is unable to stay awake any longer. _

_And some time later, she has no idea how long, she feels the heat of him brushing her hair away from her neck, and his soft lips cause sparks where they touch her skin. She smiles at him without opening her eyes. "Mmm. Where have you been?"_

_She gasps as he kisses the spot behind her ear that drives her crazy. His voice is so low that she feels the vibrations of his words more than the words themselves. "I'm here."_

_His mouth and tongue travels paths along her neck, and he pulls at the shirt she wears so that he can nibble at her clavicle. She shivers in delight and grabs at his hair in the way he loves. She scrapes her nails at his scalp. Another man would find this painful, but she couldn't hurt Jacob physically if she tried. He purrs low in his throat in response, and he nips at her skin gently. She moans, "Oh. You're here?" before she opens her legs to him as she has already opened her heart. _

_She relishes his strong, solid form above her. He dips down for a kiss that melts him into her, and he doesn't let up until she is panting and grasping at him. Her heart speeds in her chest as she feels his hands traveling down her body to grab at the hem of her shirt to tug it up, and she whimpers when his fingers dig into her hips. "I'm here," he whispers._

But suddenly he is not, and neither is she. Bella shoots up in bed, gasping and covered in perspiration, then winces as her stitches pull at her skin. But her worry for Jacob overrides her discomfort. What just happened? He was just with her. She knows it. This was no fever dream, no hallucination, no wishful thinking. He was with her, and then he was gone. She reaches for her phone. Whatever yanked them out of their shared dream didn't happen to her, it happened to him. She fumbles at her nightstand until she realizes the phone is in her bag, and her bag is nowhere to be seen. She glances at the clock as she gingerly rises from the bed. It isn't yet six AM. She knows Jacob was supposed to patrol this morning, so perhaps it was just his alarm that woke him up.

She doesn't think either of them is so lucky. As she makes her way out of her room, she notes the window is now closed. Charlie must have noticed how cold it had become. She looks outside, and the bald eagle is once again staring at her from its perch in the tree. She hopes that is a good sign, and that it means Jacob isn't in trouble.

Holding the bannister, she makes her way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where her book bag sits on the kitchen counter. Jacob doesn't answer his cell, and by the time she reaches Billy on the land line, he is long gone.

"Sorry, dear. He rushed out of here a minute ago."

"Is everything okay?" she asks hesitantly.

"No death or destruction, if that's what you mean. Sam banged on the door and said Jasmine's freaking out. I'm not sure, but I think it's new wolf panic, not a new vampire on the loose or anything."

"Oh, that's good." In fact, Bella feels just the opposite. Her stomach churns with the thought of the other girl dragging Jacob out of bed, particularly out of the bed they shared, even if it wasn't a physical one.

Billy chuckles weakly. He isn't thinking what Bella is thinking, but he too feels that there are levels of good and levels of bad, and this doesn't really rank on the good scale. "Maybe. I think we're getting jaded, you and I."

"Yeah." She groans a little as she sits down in a kitchen chair.

"You okay, Bella?"

"Just sore," _and heartsick_, she thinks to herself.

"Charlie taking good care of you?"

"Yeah. He's still sleeping. You know, late night and all."

"I'll bet he's having a ball getting to take care of his little girl for once, though I'm sure he hates why he has to."

"I hate to put him out." She sits heavily in a kitchen chair.

Billy chuckles. "He's your dad, Bella. It's not just his job to take care of you. It's his most important job. I'll bet this morning he goes out to buy you breakfast. He's perfectly capable of burning toast and overcooking scrambled eggs, but your old man probably wants to baby you for a bit. For a hardened cop, he's really just a big, squishy mushball when it comes to his little girl."

Although she has no appetite whatsoever, she answers, "A nice big breakfast does sound better than overcooked eggs."

"You just wait and see."

She finally stops putting off her other major question for Billy. She wants to know, but she doesn't know if she can stomach the answer. "Do you know what happened last night?"

"I'm afraid I fell asleep waiting for Jake to come home. The boys told me that Jasmine phased and hurt you, but not much more than that. He obviously did get back at some point, but I was asleep until Sam came to get him. Sorry, dear."

"Oh, it's not your fault." She chews her bottom lip with worry.

"You should try to go back to bed if you can," he says gently.

"I'll try. Not sure I'll be able to," she answers skeptically.

"You need one of the guys to come over and lend you a hand? I'm happy to see which pack member can come over."

"No, no," she answers hastily. "I'll be fine. I've been through worse, you know that."

He snorts. "That's awful. A werewolf mauling you should be high on the list of bad things that happen to you."

"Well," she sighs, "You know me. Danger magnet and monster catnip."

Billy keeps speaking in a deliberately soothing tone. "You sound awfully tired, Bella. Really, you should just go back to bed. You need your rest after what happened."

"I'll try. Can you have Jake give me a call when he gets in?"

"Sure thing. If he doesn't run straight to your house first."

"Thanks, bye."

"Bye."

Bella does go back to bed, having nothing else to do, and even dozes on and off for another couple hours. But she doesn't manage to sleep deeply enough to get decent rest, and she is incredibly disappointed not to be able to reach a dream state so that she can at least return to Jacob's empty room. Unfortunately, thinking about it only makes it worse, rendering real sleep impossible, and eventually she gingerly makes her way back out of bed.

Charlie does his best to take care of her as the day wears on. Just as Billy had predicted, as soon as he wakes up he goes to the diner to pick up a hot breakfast for her. He also brings home a stack of magazines from the newsstand, and she tries to distract herself with the latest romantic hookups of celebrities she doesn't care about. It might be fun if Rose or Leah was here to make fun of the stories with her, but alone she just finds them dull and uninteresting. She switches to a copy of Nature and actually becomes engaged in the cover story about a new species of dinosaur whose fossils were discovered in Mongolia. But then she turns the page to discover a piece about the Alpha females of wolf packs, and she gets so nauseated that she almost throws up her breakfast. She tosses it aside and finally decides to do her homework. Even if it bores her to tears, at least she will be accomplishing something.

She manages to get through her reading assignments for her Introduction to Information Systems seminar and her American Literature class before she hears the loud, distinctive sound of her own truck pulling up. Leah enters through the front door seconds later.

"You look as good as I feel." Leah flops into the armchair and eyes her appraisingly.

"Then you must feel like crap."

Leah smirks. "That's right. I wasn't paying you a compliment."

"How are your, you know, broken skull and body?"

"Healing faster than your broken body," Leah shrugs.

"Hrmph. I should have been born the werewolf. Then every time parts of me split apart it would be way easier to knit them back together."

"Yeah, but the splitting apart bit still hurts like fuck."

"And I don't envy the shared brain thing, that's for sure. I don't even really want Jake to see the stuff I think sometimes. It's embarrassing in here," Bella points at her own head.

Leah snorts. "I don't doubt that for a second."

"You know, if only I had been able to let Edward in, though, he'd never have fixated on me."

"You think?"

"I know."

"I never got to ask you. How was Chicago? How was his house?" Leah deliberately avoids what she really came here for.

"Chicago's neat, but his house was sort of over the top. It was a mansion. It made the Cullen house here look like a condo. I kind of liked the attic, though. And we found some of his old stuff up there. Childhood toys."

"It's hard to imagine that creep ever being a child."

"Yeah, but he was human before he was a vampire. But it really struck home just how long ago that was."

"Wow. What are you going to do with the place?"

"Donate it. Probably to a university or maybe a historical society. The Cullens are finding someone to help me figure out who to give it to."

"Not going to move in anytime soon, huh?"

Bella shudders. "Gosh, no. It'd feel like I was living in a haunted house. And it's not like I'm about to move away from Jake." Bella hopes that Leah will take the opportunity to give her news, but Leah just nods and stares out the window. So Bella finally asks, "Do you know what's going on?"

Leah shakes her head. "No, not really. I slept over at Rosalie's. It doesn't smell so awful since there haven't been any leeches living there in months, and I was just too tired to walk back home last night. I hate to admit it, but it was a pain not being able to phase and run home quickly."

"Wait. Did you walk all the way home from the Cullens' house? With a cracked skull and broken ribs?"

Leah pokes at herself gingerly. "It's getting better. But no, Rose dropped me at the border. She didn't want to get any closer and trigger Jasmine again. I went back to get your truck since it was stuck at my house, but I didn't see anyone while I was there."

"But you were there for a while after I left, right? What happened then?"

"Well, tell me what you know first," Leah hedges. Jacob ought to be having this conversation. Not her.

Bella just stares at her. "I don't actually know anything. But I think I saw Jasmine imprint on Jacob as I was leaving. He never came to see me last night, but his eagle was waiting for me when I got home."

Leah lets out a sad sigh. "Then you know about as much as I do. She did, yeah. He introduced the pack to her, and we talked for a minute without her, but yeah. She imprinted on him. And she hasn't figured out how to phase back, not last I knew."

Bella's heart sinks into her stomach. "What did he say?" she whispers.

Leah smiles gently at her. "That he loves you. And all he wanted to do was crawl through your window."

Bella manages a small smile back. "I dreamt about him last night."

"Ooh. One of those dreams?" Leah asks suggestively.

Bella blushes in response. "Almost. But we woke up all of a sudden just after he arrived. I was afraid something bad happened."

"You mean, that something even worse happened?"

"Yeah. Jake didn't answer his phone. And Billy said he ran out the door. Sam had come to get him."

"Did they talk? Jake and his dad?"

"I don't think so, no."

"That's too bad. I think that's the only reason he went home instead of coming here. To talk to his father." Leah easily reads her friend's fears. She wants reassurance that Jacob still loves her.

Bella nods and looks at her hands. She had wondered why, if Jacob had the chance to sleep, he didn't do it with her. Last night, of all nights, she wanted his solid form at her side. "It was wonderful being with him in the dream. It always is. But way too short. But that's his spirit, not his wolf. I mean, when Sam is spirit walking away from his wolf, he wants just you. But that doesn't stop him from wanting Emily when he's in his body."

Leah leans forward toward Bella. "Yeah, but Jacob's wolf wants you. His wolf wanted to mark you, didn't he?"

Bella looks up at her. "You also said that Taha Aki marked all his wives. It didn't stop him from imprinting, or from having more than one wife."

"I don't think Jake is going to try to drag you into some polygamous marriage, Bella. Besides. I don't think we really know what happened to those wolves hundreds of years ago. It might have just been that he lived so long he kept getting remarried when he outlived his wives. And who cares anyway? Jake loves you. Period. Said so again last night."

Bella squeezes her eyes shut. After a long silence, she finally whispers, "But did he really imprint on her? That time he saw her at your house? Has he just been fighting it this whole time? He's wanted her since he first saw her, from the second she touched him. I know it. You know it. And now she probably knows it too. How am I supposed to compete with that?"

"Since when do you have to? Let's say he did imprint on her and he's just too proud or stubborn to admit it. What's the first thing he did after he saw her?"

"Came to me," Bella admits.

"Yeah. And unlike Sam, he didn't dump you the first chance he got. He screwed your damn brains out on Sam's kitchen table. Does that sound like a man who wants someone else?"

Bella mumbles, "Maybe he's just been with me since I'm available. Like I'm a substitute for what he really wants."

"Bella, are you kidding me? She'd have jumped his bones ages ago if he'd have let her. If he wanted to sleep with her, he had every opportunity. He wants you. Trust me. I've been inside that perverted brain of his. On that first night he saw her, remember? It was like a porno reel was the only thing going on in there, and you were the star of every last scene. He could barely even remember Irina's vampire trail, all he could think about was boning you."

Bella can't even bother to be embarrassed, she is so relieved at Leah's reminder. But there is no way for her to feel comfortable with Jacob's physical reaction to Jasmine. "But he gets, you know, aroused when she touches him. Just simple, casual contact. How am I supposed to feel about that?"

"Squicky and displeased, of course. But you do know that normal people in normal, healthy relationships do get attracted to other people from time to time, don't you? That part's just human. What matters in a normal relationship is whether those people actually pursue those other attractions or not. It's actually freakish and weird that Jake normally doesn't have them. He's a seventeen year old boy. Any jiggly set of boobs is supposed to give him a hard on, not just yours. But they don't for some reason. And when Jake gets turned on when Jasmine touches him, he doesn't want to have sex with her, which again, yes, is really weird. He just wants to have sex with you. He's a freak, but he's your freak."

Leah is right, of course. Even Bella has to admit to herself that she occasionally eyes other men from time to time. They all fall short when she compares them to Jake, and usually by a long shot, but it isn't as if she doesn't notice them. Being with him hasn't rendered her blind. Her heart lies with him, so if his lies with her, does she have any right to judge? If only Leah could reassure her of one more thing. "But you couldn't see in his brain last night, right? Since it's not safe for you to phase? So how do you know what he thinks now?"

Leah sits back and looks her in the eye. "I can't, not the creepy psychic magic way. But he says he loves you, he acts like he loves you, and has he ever done anything to hurt you?"

Bella actually wracks her brain trying to come up with something. "He told Charlie about my motorcycle once, totally got me in trouble."

"You mean, the death trap you should never have gotten on in the first place that you were hiding from your dad? That you were deliberately using to put your own life at risk so you could get hallucinatory visions of your jackass ex? Miss I-can't-walk-twenty-feet-without-tripping let alone safely ride a crotch rocket?"

"Yeah," she admits sheepishly.

"Fine. Sort of a dick move, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and you were about to hand yourself over to a psychopath on a silver platter. You so deserved that. Got anything else?"

"Uh, he kissed me once when I didn't want him to." Leah rolls her eyes. "Fine. When I was pretending to myself that I didn't want him to."

"I repeat my previous statement. And? That can't be the end of the list."

"Mmm, it is. I can't think of anything else."

"Bella, love doesn't come with guarantees. It's not supposed to be a sure thing, an inevitable event that you have no control over or willpower to pursue or set aside. It's one of the things that's so fucked up about Sam and Em. He didn't pick her, but he's stuck with her anyway. That's not love. If you can get Sam away from his wolf long enough to talk to him, he'd say that too. Love is risky and scary. It's a leap of faith. All you're supposed to be able to judge someone's love for you is based on what they say and what they do. Period. That's all anybody else gets. I'll tell you what he thinks if I ever get in his brain again, because we're friends and imprinting ruined my life, and I don't want it to ruin yours. But hasn't he earned a little faith?"

Bella smiles. "That's what Charlie said. Not so eloquently, but basically that."

"He loves you, Bella. There's other crazy shit going on right now, yes, but he loves you." She steps closer to the window and peers up. "And he sent you that." She points to the bald eagle, which still has not moved.

Bella turns to look at it. It ruffles its feathers at her again, and she smiles up at it. "Yeah."

"If that's not a sign, I don't know what is." She falls back into the armchair again. "Ugh. Imprinting sucks."

"Do you think you might?"

"What, imprint?"

"Yeah."

Leah shrugs. "I really didn't think I could before Jasmine came along. I mean, I'm a freak among freaks, right? But now I'm not so sure. But I still don't think I can have kids, so probably not. Which, as far as the imprinting thing is concerned, is probably for the best."

Bella nods, then grins. "And knowing your luck, you'd imprint on a baby, like Quil, or a married man or something."

Leah snorts. "Old Quil. He's got the genes."

"Oh my god, you'd give him a heart attack," she laughs. "No, no. Collin. He's got a great big crush on you."

"Eww. He's such a little kid. No."

"Paul's dad."

"Heh. I don't think so."

"No, no. I've got it." Bella leans forward conspiratorially. "Poetic justice. Joshua Uley."

"Oh, damn. I haven't seen him in years. I'd better stay away, it could totally happen. That would be just my luck!"

"Just think of it," Bella snickers. "You could be Sam's stepmom."

"Oh no," Leah shudders and laughs at the same time. "I'd be Emily's mother in law. And I'd totally end up fertile and give Sam a baby brother or something. Oh, god. No. We have to stop talking about this. It's a nightmare."

"It's a funny nightmare, though!"

Leah smirks. "I don't think I'm going to wait around for imprinting. Next time I'm in Seattle, I'm going to see Miguel."

"Oh, he adores you," Bella grins. "And so does that cute little baby of his. What's her name again?"

"Sophia. That was the one decent thing that happened last night. While I was outside, he tried to call. I guess he wanted to see how I was doing. He tried a couple times without getting an answer or leaving a message, but then she apparently got a hold of it. So the voicemail I got was her screaming, 'Puppy!', a bunch of incomprehensible babbling, and then he got the phone back and apologized. He sounded really embarrassed. It was so cute."

"Have you talked to him since then?"

Leah nods. "I called him back today. He wants to get together, but he can't drive out here with a broken hand, not yet anyway, and I had better stick around here while everything's so chaotic."

"Do you want to take a couple days off classes? I'm sure I can drive myself."

"No, I should go. I want to finish these classes so I can transfer my credits. I don't really feel like taking them over again. And I'm fine to drive, just not to phase."

Bella will be glad for Leah's company the next day. She is having a hard time focusing on anything, and Leah's humor, as well as her understanding, are good for her mood. "So when are you going to see Miguel again?"

Leah shrugs. "We'll see if things settle down around here. Maybe in a couple weeks? I'm not sure. But I've got to say it's awfully nice being able to talk about my real life, my completely psychotic life, with someone who isn't directly involved in any of it. I'm so used to keeping quiet about the pack that I kept having to stop and remind myself that I didn't have to hide anything."

"Did you tell him about yesterday?"

"You mean, my cousin exploding right next to you, nearly killing you, and then imprinting on Jake?"

"Yeah."

"Actually, I did."

Bella's eyes grow wide. "Even the imprinting part?"

"Even that. I don't know, I figured it might scare him off, but I also figured that he may as well know what he's getting into now instead of later. I guess I wanted to be honest, since it's an option, anyway."

Bella waits for more of an explanation. When she doesn't get one, she prompts, "And?"

Leah shrugs. "And then we ended up talking about Sam, which helped him figure what was up with Sam the night I got knocked out."

"Wow. How did that go?"

Leah smiles a small smile as she idly traces circles into the arm of the chair in which she sits. "And he said he'll take his chances."

And the girls grin at each other.

Leah manages to distract Bella for much of the afternoon, but eventually Charlie drives her home, and Bella is left alone once again. And still, Jacob does not come. Whatever peace she found in Leah's words fades as the minutes and hours tick by, and still there is no sign of him. She lies in bed anxiously wondering where Jacob is . With half lidded eyes she stares at the eagle still standing sentinel outside her window, illuminated by what little light reflects from the moon. And finally, when she is just about to call Billy again to see if he knows anything, her phone vibrates and the screen blinks on with a short message. "I love you, and I hope to see you in my dreams." Warmth settles over her as she smiles, and she soon falls asleep.

_This time, when she enters his room in the little red house, she is calm despite the fact that it is empty. She changes into one of his cotton tees. But rather than feeling tired and slipping into his bed, she wanders about his room, or what small space is left now that two mattresses sit side by side instead of one. She opens drawers whose contents she is already familiar with. She rifles through his closet and fingers his clothing, smiling to herself at the shirts she likes best on him, the ones that he has actually outgrown slightly and fit a bit too snugly on him. She examines his books, plucking one off the shelf she has never read. But just as she starts to become engrossed in it, she hears footsteps in front of the door, and warmth spreads through the room as the doorknob turns._

_And before he can shut it behind him, she is jumping into his open arms. He squeezes her tightly around her middle, heaving a great sigh of relief and happiness. She wraps her legs around his waist and buries her face in his neck, breathing in his scent and sending electricity coursing out across his skin from the point of contact. They cling together for long minutes, until she finally lifts her head to ask, "Where have you be..."_

_But he cuts her off with his warm lips pressed to hers, and rather than try to continue speaking, she melts into him and talks to him in the language of skin on skin._

X-x-x-x-X


	25. Chapter 24

A/N: Thanks to my beta, Babs81410. FYI, the next update will be delayed due to the posting of an unrelated Sam/Leah one shot that caused a slight detour of my brainpower. Watch for it next week if you're interested. It's called Barbed Wire and String.

X-x-x-x-X  
March 23  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob arrives home after a long and frustrating day. It is dark inside. Billy is long asleep. Jacob opens up the refrigerator, grateful that his father has left him a huge bowl full of spaghetti with meatballs. He shoves it in the microwave as he searches his room for his phone. He wants to speak to Bella as badly as he has ever wanted to. He craves the sound of her voice, even if she is only going to ask him where he is and why he has not seen her yet. He needs to tell her he loves her. But she is probably already asleep. He quickly types out a text message, "I love you, and I hope to see you in my dreams."

And as he digs into his food, he wonders if he had done anything differently today, might he be in Bella's bed right now?

He had been in a bad mood from the moment he woke up. He had just managed to climb in bed several hours after she phased for the first time, after she had fallen asleep in a clearing with Quil standing guard by her side. Jacob had made his way home, tucked a blanket around Billy, who had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for him, and fell into bed. And as he started to dream, he had entered his room and found Bella waiting for him. He had greeted her with warm words, his hands on her skin, his lips pressed to her flesh, when he had been abruptly awoken by howling and banging at his door. When he looked out the window, he discovered Jasmine in plain sight in the middle of the yard. Furiously, he had ordered her back into the trees before she could be spotted. Luckily, it was early enough that none of the neighbors were awake and looking out their back windows.

Sam had hastily explained that she had awoken inexplicably after only half an hour of sleep. When she realized Jacob was gone, she had panicked and sprinted directly to his home. He had tried to order her to stop once it was clear she might be spotted, but not being true Alpha anymore, the pull of the imprint had overriden his order.

Jacob had had to follow her outside. He avoided phasing at first, since he was so angry with her that he knew his bitter thoughts would overwhelm her further and make it even harder for her to phase back. He stepped into the woods and saw a pair of pathetic puppy dog eyes staring at him. Jasmine trembled but was otherwise still, and as he approached, her tremors quieted. She was visibly relieved and chagrined all at once. He just glared at her until Quil phased back to human and appeared at his side. "She feels really bad, Jake. She didn't mean to disturb your rest, but waking up without you really scared her."

Jacob sighed as his shoulders slumped. He knew this. He was torn between being furious, depressed, and exhausted. He didn't have it in him yet to phase, not wanting to get another look in her brain, nor wanting her to see into his. It would only make her less controllable. He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go farther in. We're still pretty exposed here." And he set off deeper into the heart of the forest on two legs rather than four.

Quil ruffled Jasmine's fur gently and said, "You heard the man, come on," and led her forward. Sam brought up the rear in his wolf form. Jacob used the walk to calm down. Of all the moments for her to wake him up, she picked one of the very worst possible times. He was already barely able to tolerate her presence after what she did to Bella, and waking him up after just minutes of sleep and what promised to be a wonderful, loving dream with Bella didn't exactly endear her to him.

Eventually they came to a clearing, and he turned around. He turned to face her while Quil stepped away to phase. "I know this isn't exactly news to you, but it really is important to stay away from places we might be spotted. Most of the tribe doesn't know about us. It just isn't safe. If word got out about our powers, it would be a disaster. Not only would I expect to get carted away for a bunch of testing by, like, the government or something, but the vampire world would organize against us and descend on the Rez. It's the last thing we need. We're here to keep everybody safe, not bring disaster on everyone's heads. Which is the same reason that for now, while you don't even have enough control to phase at will, you can't come anywhere near a house or anywhere people are nearby. Bella will probably be okay, but you'll never forgive yourself if you kill someone." He leaves out the unspoken thought that he himself will probably never forgive her for hurting Bella. He also knew she already felt guilty, and nothing she could say would make him feel any better about the situation. In fact, he wanted her to talk to him as little as possible. So he added, "And you don't need to apologize. I know you feel bad enough, confused enough as it is." He looked at the ground. Her piercing gaze was too much for him, the pleading and the longing aimed at him were overwhelming even on her lupine face.

He sighed and put his hands on his hips. "Okay. Why don't we work on phasing again. Sam will phase out. Pay attention to what he's doing."

For several minutes, both Sam and Quil phased in and out and back again. Quil eventually suggested that Jacob join them, since he learned the fastest and did it the most naturally. Still not wanting to look in her mind, he had declined, stating that he indeed phased so effortlessly that she would not learn anything from it, and she most likely pay more attention to one of the wolves who struggled the most, since they thought more about the process itself. Quil looked skeptical but didn't push further. Sam eventually suggested that Jacob might phase where she could see him, explaining that watching the visual transformation might help as well. Up until that point, they had all stepped out of sight. Jacob refused to let her see his naked form, although he did not say so explicitly. He had never been so self conscious before, but she wasn't going to see him nude if he could help it. In fact, he would prefer to go put on a shirt. Instead, he said that Sam and Quil could do so themselves. They both tried, turning to the side for what little modesty could be afforded, but it did not help. She struggled and was unable to proceed.

Jacob waited until the very last minute to phase in. When he saw both Quil's and Sam's ears twitch simultaneously, he realized that Collin had probably just phased in for daytime patrol. Unable to put it off any longer, he had hidden himself carefully behind a row of trees and phased in. He had no more excuses, and he needed to let Sam and Quil go home, or in Sam's case, wherever he was going. It wasn't clear to Jacob whether that would be to see Emily or not. It had been a long night for everyone, and Sam wanted to go straight to bed almost as much as his imprint was calling him to talk to Emily.

Once Sam and Quil had phased out, Jacob was grateful for Collin's continued presence. Jasmine still had no control over shielding her thoughts, and her utter adoration of Jacob was uncomfortable for both Jacob and Collin. As such, they tried to keep up a steady stream of chatter to distract themselves and, hopefully, Jasmine as well.

It simply didn't work. Jasmine tuned out nearly everything that Collin said, hanging on Jacob's every word and listening to the rise and fall of his voice. But Jacob remembered that during the previous night, she was able follow directions that he gave her almost robotically. It disturbed him how automatically she did so, the dual influences of his imprint and Alpha relationships rendering her powerless against him, but it was the only way he knew to focus her away from him. So he asked her to try once again to phase, this time with Collin as a guide.

It was still the one instruction she was unable to follow. The thought of phasing out of the pack mind where Jacob resided was terrifying. Just as her fear of being apart from him found her sprinting headlong to his home early that morning, it prevented her from any concerted attempt to phase out.

It was Collin, not Jacob, who reminded her that she had been a wolf less than a day. He reassured her that it took all of them time to learn the process, and she calmed down. So Jacob had to push down his impatience and try again. This time they did something simple. He had her watch Collin's path so that she could learn the patrol path they used in the daytime, a modified circuit that differed from the nighttime patrol to accommodate the fact that they could more easily be seen. This she could do, and her panic slowly subsided.

Later on, once she had a clear memory of the route, they tried basic exercises to help her shield her thoughts. The first ones were simple. She would recite the alphabet backward or count down from a thousand by intervals of seven. Collin revealed that he had heard Embry reciting lines of epic poetry once while trying to keep his brothers from finding out about an embarrassing argument he had had with Julie the night before that ended in her throwing his clothes out her window, forcing him to jump down to the yard in nothing but his birthday suit. Paul had memorized a massive collection of dirty limericks for a similar purpose, although until he imprinted on Rachel he was more than happy to share all his sexual conquests with anyone who would listen.

Jasmine decided to sing songs. Her years of singing in school choirs had left her with dozens memorized, and even Jacob had to admit that the music coming from her sounded better than any of the other wolves' attempts at music. They then spent nearly an entire hour of relative peace as she went through her repertoire. Jacob was relieved that some of her intense focus on him was diverted elsewhere, and she was pleased to be making some kind of progress.

Eventually, though, she lost her concentration on her music. Jacob was suddenly flooded by images of himself, so he hastily distracted her with a discussion of the spirit warrior powers which they had only recently discovered. He explained his own skills, then Collin told her about his own more limited ones and of Sam's as well. She was terribly impressed with Jacob's abilities, unsurprisingly, but able to focus on Collin's interjections when asked to by Jacob.

By midday, Jacob's discomfort was overtaken by his hunger. He had not had anything to eat since their pizza the night before. In fact, the entire night prior to Bella's injury seemed like some kind of dream. One that he very much wanted to return to. But he tried not to dwell on it too much. Even though the details of his thoughts were generally hidden from his pack until he tried to broadcast them, his control had slipped under the force of his emotions and exhaustion, and Jasmine could tell each time his mind drifted off to Bella. It made her frightened and angry all at once. And as much as he wanted to yell at Jasmine that he loved Bella and always would, he wanted her to calm down and phase back more, so he tried to quiet his thoughts.

His hunger turned out to be a welcome distraction. It reminded her that she was as well. So they took the opportunity to give her a hunting lesson. Jacob himself preferred to eat cooked food, although his wolf was quite happy to take down prey, and Jasmine might be stuck like this for days or weeks and would have to eat something eventually. And hunting did come naturally to her, as it did to all the wolves. Within two hours, she caught a rabbit that Collin had flushed toward her. Jacob ate nothing, deciding it would be one of his excuses to leave and go home at the end of his shift. He knew she would want him to remain in the pack mind, but there was no way he could have stayed indefinitely even if he wanted to. He was desperate to get back to Bella, and he very much needed to talk with his father.

About an hour before his shift was to end, he asked Jasmine if she wanted to try phasing one more time. She immediately realized that he was going to leave soon. He saw another panic attack brewing, so he hastily explained that he would get lunch at his own house, deciding that he would try to leave again once she had fallen asleep. After all, she, like him, had only had around half an hour's rest in the past thirty hours, so she would inevitably sleep at some point.

_But I won't see you again until tomorrow? _she had asked. She was humiliated by the neediness in her own voice, but unable to hide it.

Collin had not so gently reminded him that when he phased for the first time, Sam had not left the pack mind at all until Collin had phased back. Jacob recalled that Sam did the same for him, although his own transition was the quickest and the smoothest, physically at least, and so the time commitment of such an endeavor was much less. But Jasmine had need not only of her Alpha, but her imprint as well, and it was not her fault.

After only a second's hesitation, he had answered, _I'll be back soon. I need to talk to my dad, and there's no way to do that in this body. _

The answer appeased her, particularly since he indeed needed to speak with Billy. So they waited until Jared and Brady arrived for the next patrol. Jacob led Jasmine to a spot in the woods near enough to his home that she would feel comfortable being close to him, but still far enough that she would not hear his conversation. He debated whether or not to give her an Alpha order to stay there. He had always been reluctant to issue such orders; he loathed the loss of free will and judgement that it inevitably brought. So he just asked her to stay there and out of sight, but did not do so in his Alpha's voice. Brady came to sit with her, and Jacob phased out and returned to his house.

Billy had been awaiting him anxiously and with a warm casserole from the oven. Jacob collapsed into a kitchen chair and dug into the food without bothering to transfer it onto a plate. Billy smiled at him. "Like the food?"

"Mmungry," Jacob answered. " 'Sgood."

Billy set a huge glass of milk in front of him, which he downed in five seconds flat, then refilled it for him. In ten minutes, three quarters of the casserole was gone, and Jacob paused mid-bite and looked at his father sheepishly. "Maybe you should get a plate before I eat all of it."

Billy cocked a brow at him. "I'm afraid if you don't get that whole thing, you're going to wither away and die."

"I was afraid of starving to death, but I think I can spare a serving."

Billy chuckled and joined him. After Jacob polished off the rest of the casserole and refilled his milk, Billy opened, "So. The pack got bigger." Silently, he pointed to the window and mouthed, "Can she hear us?"

Jacob shook his head. "She's pretty close, but I asked her to stay in a spot where she wouldn't be seen, which is also far enough away that it's out of hearing range."

"So what happened?"

Jacob rubbed his face with both hands and heaved a heavy sigh. "Where do I even start?"

Billy answered, "I heard what happened to Bella. Is she okay?"

Jacob's face crumpled. "That's the worst part. I don't even know. I haven't seen her since I put her into Charlie's cruiser last night. Every time I think about going over there, Jasmine freaks out. She's got to be hurting on every level. She probably needs somebody to help her out. Lean on, physically. And she's got to be wondering where the hell I am and why I'm not right by her side."

"Are you going to go over there?"

"I want to, believe me. But I told Jasmine I'd be back after I talked to you. I'm not sure I can tell you just just how little I want to go back out there, but Collin reminded me how Sam never left any of the rest of us when we first phased if he could help it."

Billy nodded. "Being Alpha isn't fun, but it is important. It's the right thing to do even if it is the hard choice. I'm sure Bella will understand."

Jacob dropped his head into his hands again. "Even though Jasmine imprinted on me?"

Billy frowned. "I was wondering if we were going to talk about that."

"If we don't, will it go away?" he mumbled into his hands.

Billy chuckled. "Don't think that's how it works, son."

"Damn. Imprinting pisses me off more than anything else about being a wolf. And let's face it. Lots of things about being a wolf piss me off. Even Sam figured out he loves Leah more than he'll ever love Emily. Did you know he asked her to take him back?"

"Really?" Billy's eyes widen with surprise.

"Yeah," Jacob nods. "He's been bugging her ever since she started dating other people. Then he kind of went off the deep end when she decided to move to Seattle. She kept telling him to go away, to leave her alone, but his jealousy, and then realizing he was going to lose her for good when she leaves, really got to him."

"What happened? I haven't seen them together."

"Right. They aren't. When Leah got hurt, when she was in a coma, he finally figured out how important she is to him. When she woke up, he said he'd leave Emily. Said he'd just say in Seattle with her. But she said no. She's moved on, you know? I mean, I think she still loves him and everything, but you can't get engaged to a girl's best friend and expect that she's going to take you back after that."

"Wow." Billy can't think of anything else to say. This goes against everything they knew about imprinting. But then again, the more they learn from the newest generation of wolves, the more they realize that they really don't know that much. "What about Emily?"

"The imprint hasn't broken, I don't think. But I think he didn't go home until he stopped by to see her last night. It was right after Jasmine phased. I think he just went to tell her what happened and then came right back out for patrol. He asked me for night shifts this week."

"Is she okay? Is he okay?"

"I don't know about her. I mean, I'm pretty sure she's upset, but I don't really know. He's not talking to anybody, trying not to think about it either. But it can't be good for either of them."

"That's awful."

"And Emily's getting sort of isolated. Have you heard Rachel go off about her?"

Billy snorted at this. "Who hasn't?"

"Right. So you know. I mean, nobody seemed to realize before Rachel and Paul just how true it is that the wolf has to answer to the needs of the imprint. We all just thought it was romantic, right? Especially after Sam couldn't leave Emily alone after the first told him to go back to Leah."

"So why didn't he? If that's what she asked for, didn't he do it?"

"Well, now that we're seeing into the minds of more imprinted wolves, I feel like it's becoming clear that in the beginning, they don't feel like they can be apart at all. I mean, remember how Paul was stalking Rach?"

"Okay, that's true," Billy nodded. "But what about after?"

"So that's the bad part. For one thing, she didn't wait long enough to let him calm down. She said yes right after he accidentally hurt her, and that was pretty soon after the imprint. And get this: she actually told Leah that she had always had a crush on him and wanted Leah's relationship for herself. She just thought it was harmless and nothing would come of it."

"Oh no." Billy feels awful. "And then we came along and told him that she was his soulmate. That she was his perfect mate, his other half."

"It's what you thought. That's exactly what the legends say. What else did anyone have to go off of?"

Billy closed his eyes. "And Harry. Harry himself told Sam he had no choice but to break up with Leah. Oh, no. At least he isn't still around to see how wrong we all were. He would never have forgiven himself."

"Well, Leah is going to be okay. Like she told Sam, she loves him, but she's moved on. It's him I'm worried about. I don't know how he'll get past this."

Billy looked up. "It's bad, yes, but he wouldn't exactly be the first guy to let a great girl get away."

"That's true," Jacob said reluctantly.

"What a mess," Billy sighed. "And to think that now you get to be a part of that mess."

Jacob stood up abruptly and began pacing. "Yeah. I can't think of anything I was less prepared for. I mean, I hate imprinting. I really never thought it would happen to me since I can't imagine wanting to be with anyone more than I want to be with Bella. But I knew it was possible. I just knew I didn't have to give in. I'd do anything to resist it. To fight it off. But this? What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Well, I suppose you do what your sister has done," Billy offered. "You should talk to her."

"I plan to. Believe me. It's just, with Paul, she never had to see in his brain. She didn't know just what it was like for him. And she could set boundaries. I will too, but I can't really get away from her. Even once she learns to phase, even when she's safe to be around people, I'll have to see her every single day in school."

Billy suggested, "Maybe that's a good thing."

"How? What do you mean?" Jacob couldn't envision a single upside to this.

His father shrugged. "We do know that the wolf is in pain if they are too far from their imprints, right? Well, school is neutral ground. She can be near you in a controlled setting when you both have other things to do. Maybe you don't have to see her too much otherwise. After all, she has to do what you want. So if you want her to leave you and Bella alone, that's what she'll do."

"I sure hope so," Jacob said skeptically. Her thoughts and emotions tied to him are so overwhelming that he can't see how she might be able to back off. "Do any of the legends actually talk about rejected wolves?"

Billy shook his head. "Not directly. We know it must have happened, since there are references to wolves always feeling incomplete if they get rejected, or worse yet, dying if an imprint died. But nothing more concrete than that."

"I wish there was more to go off of."

Thoughtfully, his father answered, "At least now we know why your wolf reacted so aggressively toward her. She was a threat to what you share with Bella, and your wolf sensed it. I wonder if you were also picking up on negative feelings on her part toward Bella, and your wolf was warning you?"

Jacob picked at his napkin nervously. "Yeah, that's not all. I mean, my wolf hates her and always did. But I never told you about the other thing."

When he didn't continue, Billy prompted, "The other thing?"

Jacob sighed. This was one of most awkward conversations he would ever have. "Ugh. I, you know, get another, um, involuntary reaction to her. Or I used to, anyway."

Billy just looked confused. "Sorry, son. I don't see what you're getting at."

"Dammit," Jacob muttered under his breath. "It only happened if she touched me. Just casual contact. But I'd get, you know..." Billy just raised a quizzical eyebrow. Jacob huffed. "You know," and he gestured vaguely toward his own crotch.

"Oh!" Billy finally understood. "Wait. You said 'used to.'"

"I haven't let her touch me in any way in weeks. I avoid it."

"So you're attracted to her," Billy clarified.

"No!" Jacob retorted vehemently. "I'm not! I honestly wanted to phase and rip her throat out every time it happened. I know it sounds like a lie considering what happens to my body, but no. I'm just not. I don't have a crush on her, I don't want to have sex with her. It's an involuntary reaction, and it's not about sex. I want her as much as I want to have sex with my mattress when I wake up with morning wood!"

Billy sputtered with surprised laughter. "Ah, to be a teenager again. When we were, oh, fifteen or so, Charlie named those NARBs."

"Wait, what?" Now it is Jacob's turn to be confused.

"It was so stupid," Billy chuckled. "We all remember being teenagers, son. You can't keep your junk to yourself to save your life. Of course, it's no surprise that it happens when you're with your girl, or when you're with the girl you're crushing on, or if you're just thinking about a girl. Which is fine depending on where you are and who you're with. And if you're not alone, or alone with your girl under the right circumstances, you just hope you're wearing a decent pair of pants, nothing that can pitch a tent. Or that you can adjust yourself discreetly." Jacob blushes to listen to his father talking, but frankly, it's a relief that he seems to understand. But Billy continued, "Then there are the ones you get just because you're nervous. My most embarrassing one was when I was fifteen. The math teacher called me to the board, and I had absolutely no idea what I had just been asked to do. So of course I start sporting one, for absolutely no other reason than I was nervous, and of course now I have to get up in front of the whole class."

"What happened?"

"Oh, I was so smooth. I pretended to drop something by my desk. So while I was bending over, I had a chance to readjust myself. You know, do the whole point and tuck thing. Wedged it behind my belt and loosened my shirt. Then I got up, asked the teacher to repeat the question, and wrote the correct answer. I was so proud of myself that I told Harry and Charlie about it later. That's when Charlie came up with the term NARB. No Apparent Reason Boner."

Jacob barked out a laugh, and soon they were both wiping tears from their eyes. Jacob added, "Quil got one once just watching the Seahawks win on a Hail Mary pass. He jumped out of his chair cheering and waving his arms around, but he had pitched a tent in his pants. We won't let him forget it, but we all know he wasn't exactly attracted to the team."

"Yes! A perfect example of a NARB!"

After they both calmed down, Jacob asked, "So you think maybe it's nothing?"

Billy sighed. "Well, seeing as she imprinted on you, probably not. How many times has it happened?"

"Uh, three or four, maybe. But I haven't let her come near me since."

"And your wolf hates her?"

"With a passion. Almost as bad as if she's a vamp. Although last night it was hard to tell if it was just 'cause she hurt Bella. And because I can't think of anything worse than having her imprint on me."

"Then I think your wolf has given us the answer. Your wolf rejected its own imprinting process. Probably happened the second you saw her. You said you reacted with aggression the very first time you saw her again, right?"

Jacob nods, eyes widening in realization. "Yeah. I wanted to phase and tear into her the moment I looked in her eyes. You're right. It was like the opposite of imprinting. Sudden, inexplicable rejection."

"And your body's other reaction? I think that's the vestige. The reduction of what the process is. I think now we do know what imprinting is for. It's probably why the legends really only refer to romantic partnerships. The only ones we know of that weren't are the ones with wide age gaps, and they became mates later on. So what your body felt is probably imprinting in its most basic function without any of the trappings of false emotions or brainwashing."

"It's just a mating urge? Nothing more?"

"That's all. That's what I think. Considering that Sam loves Leah more than Emily, and looking at the other imprinted couples. I think so. You rejected all the other trappings since you knew they weren't real. Rejected the whole thing, really, and you're left with the shadow of an imprint. You did, or your wolf did. I don't know which. You're the most stubborn person I've ever met, Jake. Just like your mom, maybe even worse than Rachel. You either submitted your wolf to your own will, or your wolf is just a lot like you, well suited to you."

"He's just as much in love with Bella as I am."

Billy smiled. "I'm not surprised."

"That explains so much. Why Jared never took a second look at Kim before he imprinted, but then never looked away again. Sam had met Emily a dozen times before he imprinted, and never once did she catch his eye. Paul thought Rachel was attractive, but that's all, and let's face it, he wasn't discriminating. They weren't exactly suited to each other before she started turning him around." Then Jacob frowned. "So Leah probably really can't have kids, then?"

Billy shrugged. "Who knows? I doubt that the imprint would need to occur just to get shifters to reproduce. I mean, a bunch of testosterone laden teenage boys? If anything, you would each be fathering babies on multiple girls. There would be plenty of wolves. Too many. Maybe imprinting is the opposite. Population control. Making sure the pack stays small, making sure each wolf is monogamous. Maybe it's just arbitrary which genetically compatible woman the wolf imprints on."

"Rachel was worried Paul would imprint on Rebecca. I mean, if it was just about genetic compatibility, he'd imprint on both of them since they have the same DNA."

Billy nodded. "But he didn't. So it can't be pure genes. It could be blind luck, or it could be something else entirely. Fulfilling some other utility for the wolf." He muses, tapping his fingers on the table. "Maybe it's to keep the wolves all here, all in the tribe."

Jacob sat back down. "Yeah. I mean, Emily seems to want nothing more than to make a home for Sam. Same for Kim. They just want to settle down here. But Leah said she planned to move back. She thought they'd come home after college."

"But they'd never been away from home. Does she like Seattle?"

"Yeah," Jacob nods. "She loves it."

"Maybe if they had gone off together, they'd have never come back." Billy looked thoughtful. "Or maybe she really can't have kids, or maybe it's just totally random. Either way, I don't suppose we'll ever know for sure. All I do know is that your wolf feels like you do and wants nothing to do with imprinting."

"So what do I do with Jasmine?"

"Talk to her. Have her talk to Paul. And remember that even though you feel this way, she feels the opposite. So, baby steps, you know?"

"Okay," Jacob said, relieved at Billy's wisdom and advice.

"Do you want to call your sister?"

"Yeah. Right after I call Bells. She's got to be worried sick. I know I'm worried about her. I'd normally never take my eyes off her with her injured the way she is. It kills me that I'm not taking care of her right this second."

Jacob stood to reach for the phone on the wall, but before he could reach it, the back door burst open to reveal an agitated Jared Cameron. "You don't know what you're taking about!"

Billy turned in surprise. Jacob held out a placating hand. "Sorry, man. I'm not trying to break up a happy home."

"Then don't you dare say that what I've got isn't real! You don't know shit. Just because you've gone and fucked up your imprint doesn't invalidate the rest of ours," he fumed.

"That wasn't what I meant," Jacob protested. But it came out weakly, because that was exactly what he meant.

"Think about what you're doing to Jasmine! It's cruel. She can't help what's happening to her, can't help that she needs you, so it isn't fair of you to take out your frustrations on her."

Jacob examines Jared closely. He clearly has no idea how contradictory his words are. Quietly, he answers, "She should have a choice. That's what's wrong with the whole thing." Then he narrows his eyes. "Wait. Is she listening to this? Did she hear it from your brain, or is she close enough to hear it herself?"

Jared shakes his head no. "I was patrolling nearby. Phased out as soon as I figured out what you were talking about. Good thing, too. You'd have broken her heart," he accused.

"Better to break Bella's, then?" Jacob challenged. "Better to tear out my own?"

"You aren't even giving her a chance!" Jared protested. "You can't imagine how happy she could make you!"

Jacob stepped closer to Jared. "She doesn't even know me. I don't know her. But I do know that I'm in love with the girl of my dreams, have been for as long as I can remember, and she loves me back. And if you think I'm putting that in jeopardy for anything, you're out of your mind. I love Bella!"

Jared yelled back, "And I love Kim, and who the hell are you to say I don't?"

It was Billy who called a truce to the angry standoff. "You do _now_, son. No one is disputing that. That's not the question. The question is: the very first time you saw her when you imprinted, was that love? Or was it something else? We all know you love her now, and no one is trying to say it isn't real. You know who she is now, and you love that person. You cherish her, you value her, and you have very real feelings for her. But don't you think you feel more for her today than you did the day you imprinted?"

Taken aback, Jared blinked and stuttered, "Well, yeah. I do. There are, like, thousands of little things I love about her. And I find more every day."

Gently, Billy asked, "And all those things-did you even know those things about her when you first imprinted?"

"Well, no," Jared admitted reluctantly.

Billy nodded. "So you got to know her, and your love for her developed. As Jacob said, no one here is trying to break up a happy home. That includes yours." Billy leaned forward in his chair, pinning Jared with a sharp gaze. "But that also includes Jacob's."

Jared slumped. "Yeah. Okay." He looked up at Jacob. "I'm sorry. It just felt so threatening, what you were saying."

"Sure, sure. It's okay. I'm not going to try to make you dump Kim or something. My case is just different than yours."

Jared snorted. "Well, yeah. That's obvious."

"Just, can you keep this conversation to yourself for now? I need to talk to Jasmine myself."

Jared nodded skeptically. "I'm not going to say anything. But you know how the pack mind is. She's liable to get a glimpse," he says apologetically as a perfectly timed, faint whine sounded from outside.

Jacob sighed and recognized Jasmine's voice instantly. "I'll finish off your patrol. It's not like I was going to get a chance to take a nap anyway."

Jared nodded. "She really can't last long without you around, Jake. It makes her just crazy. I will say this against imprinting: those first few weeks are just hell. You can't think about anything else, can't feel anything else. Take it easy on her, okay?"

Jacob agreed, resigned. He looked longingly at the phone before heading outside. Apparently, his calls to Bella and his sister would have to wait.

After phasing in, Jacob assigned Jasmine the task of running alongside Collin. He took the only excuse he could think of to run; he decided to go check on Embry and Seth in person. He used the hard run to clear his mind and put distance between himself and Jasmine. He needed the focus that the great speed brought in order to properly shield his thoughts from Jasmine. She calmed down despite his distance since he had returned to the pack mind. So he ran until he caught up with his brothers' trails.

He found Seth first. He stayed back as far as possible, barely within sight, and stayed only a couple minutes. He wanted only to reassure himself that they were safe, not interrupt what were deeply personal, private moments. He saw Seth stalking silently through the thick undergrowth. Soon he caught sight of Seth's taxilit, a battle scarred mountain lion. Jacob faded back as quickly as he had arrived, not wanting to intrude.

It took him another half an hour to find Embry. His old friend was seated, quite still, in front of the silent mouth of a cave. Jacob didn't stay long enough to discover what his taxilit would be, but the location suggested some kind of bear. But he did not want to interrupt, so he left almost immediately.

By the time he made it back to Forks, twilight had fallen. He had spent the run answering Jasmine's questions about their spirit guardians and the powers they discovered while spirit walking, carefully pushing down his wolf's irritation at having to speak with her at all. Without even thinking, he had slowed down and taken a detour behind Bella's house. He stopped in the trees, just close enough to hear the sound her voice and Charlie's, but not so close that he could distinguish her words. He was exhausted. A knot in his gut twisted when he heard her make a small gasp of discomfort, and he decided then and there to phase out, run into the house, and gather her into his arms.

But then he heard Jasmine's thoughts become frantic. She tried to hide them, but she had already forgotten every basic exercise they had worked on that day. He shifted his attention to her. Not only was she distraught, but she had stopped looking where she was going and was about to wander into someone's back yard.

_Stop!_ Jacob yelled. _Look where you're going! If you go any farther, Mrs. Graham is going to spot you. She's out on her porch, look!_

Jasmine stopped in her tracks. Indeed, an old woman was pottering about on her back deck preparing planters for seeding. Jasmine was about five steps from coming into full view. _Oh my god! I'm so sorry!_

Jacob heaved a sigh and turned for home, twisting his head around so he could catch one last glimpse of Bella through her kitchen window. She had a furrow on her brow, and he wanted nothing more than to kiss it off her face. _I'm on my way back,_ he said in a clipped voice.

Softly, Jasmine whispered, _I'm not trying to do this on purpose. I'm sorry. _

And he knew that although she was sorry, her imprint was indeed trying to keep him away from Bella. So he said nothing, but continued slowly home.

For the rest of the evening, he tried to patrol in as much silence as was possible in the pack mind. Collin kept up a stilted conversation with Jasmine, but they all knew she was focused entirely on her silent Alpha and imprint. But Jacob had nothing kind to say. After a sleepless and stressful night, after seeing Bella in pain and not being able to go to her, it was all he could do to keep Billy's and Jared's words in mind and take it easy on Jasmine, who herself was going through one of the most difficult experiences she would ever have. But he could hardly say anything kind to her, he was so angry. Instead he managed to say nothing at all.

Finally, just before Collin's shift was to end, in an attempt to get him to speak with her again, she tentatively said, _Jacob? I think I'd like to try phasing back again._

_Do you think you're ready?_

_Well, _she said reluctantly_, you never know unless you try, right?_

_You're right. Go for it. _

_What's the worst that could happen, right? It might not work, but at least I gave it another shot._

And indeed, she simply wasn't ready. In fact, the only reason she tried was in an attempt to please him. But she couldn't do it. She wasn't nearly calm enough. Midway through her attempts, Collin phased out, and Sam and Quil phased in. Jacob saw briefly that Sam had not gone home to Emily, but to his mother's house to sleep. As soon as that thought escaped, Sam's mind closed.

Half an hour later, it was Quil who finally chimed in, _Do you think maybe it's time to try to get some rest? Neither one of you has had any real sleep in the past two days._

_Yeah, _she answered. _I'm dead on my feet. I think we both are. _

Quil made the same offer he had made the night before, with one minor change. Instead of leading her to his usual resting spot, he took her to a knoll close to Jacob's home. She shot him a grateful look before collapsing on the ground. _I won't go anywhere, okay? _Quil reassured her.

She was asleep within moments.

Jacob sighed in relief. Having her conscious mind out of his was more than welcome.

_Go ahead, _Sam urged. _Go. We've got this. _

Jacob immediately turned for Forks. He should probably go home, shower, and check in with Billy. But every fiber of his being drew him to Bella's side. So he set off for the Swan house. If he could sleep with Bella in his arms, the universe would right itself, at least for a little while.

But as soon as he passed the invisible treaty line, Jasmine snapped awake with a whimper and began to run after him. Quil tried to stop her to no avail. She said no words, but they could all feel her agitation in the pack mind. She was in the same state of thoughtless panic that nearly got her spotted by Mrs. Graham.

Jacob couldn't stop himself from growling in anger as he turned back.

_I'm sorry! I don't mean to make you mad, _she whispered. _I can't help it. _

Jacob said nothing. His only words were of exasperation and anger. So he ran back to his house, phased out, and now finds himself eating a giant bowl of pasta as fast as possible so he might go to bed. Hopefully he will find Bella in his arms once he falls asleep. He finishes in record time, takes a quick shower, and without bothering to take off his towel, falls into bed.

_And before he can shut the door behind him, she is jumping into his open arms. He squeezes her tightly around her middle, heaving a great sigh of relief and happiness. She wraps her legs around his waist and buries her face in his neck, breathing in his scent and sending electricity coursing out across his skin from the point of contact. They cling together for long minutes, until she finally lifts her head to ask, "Where have you be..."_

_But he cuts her off with a deep, passionate kiss, and the only sounds she can produce are moans into his mouth. He cannot stand to part his lips from hers. He dips his tongue into her mouth and tastes her. He inhales the fragrance of strawberries and vanilla and tries to smile while he kisses her, groaning and chuckling at the same time. He surrounds himself with her. _

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again._

_He was ready to bury himself in her body the very second he approached the house and realized she was inside. Just the thought of her awaiting him was enough. He doesn't remember where he has been or what he has been doing. He only has one goal. Her. There is only one place he wants to be: as close to her as physically possible._

_He shifts to push his hard length against her through his towel as he walks her back to the bed. She wants him to take it off, but she can't bear to separate her lips long enough to ask. She could spend lifetimes lost in his lips. They speak volumes to her. They turn up to reveal the brightest smile she has ever seen. They part to speak words of devotion and of love. When he trails his lips along the curves and planes of her body, he shows her how beautiful he thinks she is, and he teaches her the pleasures her human body is capable of. And when he kisses her, all the possibilities of the world open to her, and she sees the joy their shared future can bring. She was so used to freezing cold, chaste kisses, kisses which promised only death and destruction. Now that she has felt Jacob's kisses, no one else's will do._

_So they kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again._

_They fall on the bed together, limbs entwined as tightly as their souls. When he finally pulls his lips away and begins to trail them down her body, his fingers bunching up the hem of his tee shirt to her waist, she hums at the anticipation of what he will do when he reaches his destination. She giggles when he pauses at her navel and kisses her mound, then gasps as he tastes her along the length of her slit. _

_He kisses her, and kisses her, and kisses,her, again, and again, and again._

_He whispers against her flesh, "I'm here." Then he parts her folds with his hand, and with the very tip of his tongue starts to swirl around her sensitive bundle of nerves. As he begins to work her clit, she moans, "Thank god for that," and laughs shakily, reaching down to thread her fingers through his hair again. He laughs with her, sending vibrations coursing through her body, and grips her hip with his free hand._

_"I love the way you taste," he whispers in between suckling at her._

_"What do I taste like?" she asks._

_"Mmmm," he hums into her. "Pure sex." He dips his tongue into her tight passage, where the flavor is strongest. He pulls back just far enough to say, "Desire," then plunges back in. He licks back up to her clitoris. "Passion." He purses his lips and kisses her lips over and over again. "Want."_

_As she trembles under his ministrations, she sighs, "All for you. Only you."_

_He slides a single long, thick finger into her body and strokes gently. Removing his tongue from her allows him to lean back enough to look at her. He gazes at her writhing form, her skin glowing in the moon's reflected light. She has let go of his hair so she might roll her nipples between her fingers. Watching her bring pleasure to her own body arouses him like nothing else. She is so sensual. So wanton. So unrestrained. He knows he brings out this side of her. No one else can. He has unlocked the secret of her. He has mapped out the mysteries of her heart, her body, and her mind. Loving her is a skill that comes naturally to him, and he has perfected the art into its highest form. He is good at loving her, and she, him._

_She is as in tune with him as he is with her. She holds him when he needs her gentle embrace. She jokes with him when he needs to be reminded that he is still just a boy. Instead of judging him for the limitations his life has imposed on him, she tells him she respects him for stepping up to his responsibilities. She comforts him when his world turns upside down, and she reminds him he's human when he feels like a freak._

_And when he makes her come as she screams his name, he feels more powerful than when he kills a vampire._

_So he curls his finger into the spot that makes her ache like no other, lashes her clitoris with his tongue, and groans in satisfaction when her body is overtaken by blissful tremors that he feels washing over him as well. _

_He crawls up the length of her body, keeping his finger pressed firmly into her center, and kisses her until they are both breathless._

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again._

_He loves what he can do to her, what she does to him. There is nowhere he would rather be. As he starts to slide a second finger in to join the first, he is surprised when she pushes at his broad shoulders until she whispers, "I want to taste you too," so softly he can barely hear her. But he smiles against her mouth and allows her to roll him onto his back. As they shift positions, she idly notes that his pillowcase is torn at the hem. She nearly asks about it until the feeling of his heat against her skin distracts her. _

_She moves to straddle him, and he slides his fingers up and down her flanks, relishing the way her feminine hips curve in to her tiny waist, then up to her lovely breasts. Gradually, slowly, her slight, girlish figure is giving way to womanly curves. He always thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, has believed this for as long as he can remember. But as the years and months go by, what was once angles and planes has blossomed into truly tantalizing flesh. He licks his lips as he stares at her and slides his hands up to cup her breasts, which over time are becoming rounded and full, perfect teardrops with the most tempting nipples he could ever hope to draw into his mouth. He rubs his thumbs over them and feels them peak under his touch, and his mouth waters._

_Hers does as well. She draws her bottom lip under her teeth and looks at him in the moonlit night. His skin looks like polished bronze but feels like velvet. She runs her fingers up and down the lengths of his thick arms, and every spot that his skin meets hers she feels electricity pass between them. His gaze sends trails of heat over every inch of her body that he examines, as if he transfers some of his raw power to her with a simple look._

_She undulates her hips over his and slides her slick skin over his impossibly large cock. He hisses and arches his back in response, and his fingers dig into her waist. She angles herself so that her clitoris drags along him, and then she gasps with him. She leans over to brace herself against his pectorals and glides over him without taking him into her body. She teases him mercilessly as she teases herself, and just before he loses control to flip them over and plunge into her, she slides down and nearly off him. He picks up his head in surprise and disappointment until he realizes where she is, feeling her warm breath washing over his pulsing length as has she licks her lips and prepares to pleasure him with her mouth._

_His head falls back upon the pillow with a great groan as she licks her fluids off him with her talented tongue. "I said I wanted to taste you, remember?"_

_"I thought you changed your mind."_

_"No. But right now all I taste is myself all over you," she whispers in a low bedroom voice. He hums at her seductive words, then groans aloud when she continues, "We taste good together." She touches her lips lightly to his throbbing flesh. _

_She kisses him, and kisses him, and kisses him, again, and again, and again._

_Then she grasps his base tightly, just how he likes it, and takes his head in her mouth, and he cannot help but buck up to her. She responds by backing away slightly, teasing him with just the tip of her tongue flicking over the sensitive spots of his penis. She knows just how to drive him wild. He can't resist burying his hands in her thick hair, but he doesn't tug or pull, just holds the chestnut locks away from her face. He can see her better this way, and she can dedicate both her hands to his pleasure. She gently cups his heavy balls with her free hand, then tugs at them until he moans._

_He has to actively resist the urge to let his head fall back among the pillows and get lost in the sensations of her lips and tongue. He feels like gravity is stronger somehow, that the effect of her touch is somehow going to drag him more heavily to the earth beneath him, trapping him under her talented hands. But the sight of her is too good not to look at, her lovely eyes flicking up in a sexy glance every few seconds, peeking up at him through her thick lashes. Her eyes shine with desire and love, and he could fall right into them and never come out. He would be happy there, lost inside her forever._

_After endless teasing, her tongue tasting and lapping, her lips briefly kissing and dragging over his sensitive skin, she finally takes him back inside and suckles. Her cheeks hollow out as she massages him with her tongue in the dip in his crown, the most sensitive spot on his entire body, and he tightens his grip in her hair._

_"God, I love you so much," he gasps as he holds himself stiffly in order to avoid plundering her mouth. "The things you do to me."_

_She releases him with a pop, whispering, "Does it feel good, baby?"_

_"Yes, oh yes. Please don't stop." His normally husky, commanding voice is a strangled whimper. And he gently pushes her back down with his hands in her hair. She chuckles around him, and the vibrations spread through his body. A loud sigh escapes him. "I need you so much. Unhhh... I want you so much."_

_She pauses long enough to say, "Tell me," then immediately lowers her lips onto him again. She doesn't know why she wants to know. It isn't as if she doubts him or his love, but something in the back of her brain makes her ask. She tries not to examine it too closely and concentrates on pleasing him, easily getting distracted by the echoes of the pleasure she gives him reflecting off her own flesh. It was fulfilling to touch him before, but now that she can feel it too, she can't stay away. He is just too tempting. His beautiful body cries out for hers, and she is unable to resist its call. _

_He hums and tightens his grip in her hair. "God, Bells." He tries to still his hips, but he can't help but squirm a bit beneath her. "Ahhhh..." he breathes as she switches from gentle suckling to long licks up his shaft. "Now that I've had you... mmmmm... I can't get enough." He struggles to find adjectives in his lust addled brain. "It's better... mmm... it's better than anything."_

_She rolls his balls in one hand while pumping with the other, gathering the sticky fluid at the top and dragging it down the shaft. "I can't get enough of you either," she admits. "I love you," she murmurs, and slides him back into her welcoming mouth._

_Her admonition, the dual actions of both her hands, the softness of her lips and the wet slide of her tongue, they are all too much for Jacob. With a hiss through his teeth, he pushes her off him by her shoulders, and she looks up at him in surprise. "Did I do something wrong?"_

_He tugs her up and yanks her down with one hand buried in her hair and the other cupping the back of her skull, and he kisses her until she thinks he has forgotten her question. _

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again._

_When he finally releases her, he says to her in a husky, low rumble, "I want to come in your sweet pussy. Not in your mouth."_

_Then he rolls her onto her back, nudges her legs apart with his knees, and slides into her in a long, satisfying thrust. He settles deep inside her and rests his forehead against hers for an endless moment. She wraps her arms around his broad back but moves no more, but for the tiny, involuntary spasms that clench around his solid heat. He breathes in the air she exhales and feels her body surrounding him._

_He feels amazing. Every time he pushes into her, her body stretches and burns as it accommodates him. She loves it. It makes her feel alive. There is nothing as fulfilling as this. His body joined with hers, his passion focused only on her so that the world falls away, his skin sliding against her slick form, closer to each other than they have ever been with anyone else, nothing here but pleasure, desire, and love._

_And just when she thinks he will start to move inside her, drag out in that delicious way that promises bliss when he returns, instead he brushes his nose intimately against hers. It says what words cannot. Sweetness pours out of his every pore and fills her to the brim. And in return she gives him her happiness, her warmth, her comfort, and a love deeper than she knew she possessed before he showed her who she could be. His lips meet hers. _

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again._

_Then he begins to move. He sighs into her lips as she arches her back and plants her heels into the soft mattress to meet his thrusts. He dives into her over and over. He twines his fingers in hers and pins her hands on either side of her head, and she relishes his weight on her and in her. Every action brings her gratification in a unique way. The wide head of his cock striking firmly against her cervix sends waves up her body. His pelvic bone bumps into her clitoris at each meeting, sending electricity through her. His heat draped over her cocoons her like the most welcoming blanket. He meets her. Lips to lips, tongue to tongue, palm to palm, hips to hips, skin to skin, sex to sex, soul to soul. _

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again. _

_And her body, to him, is simply heaven. Her tight passage grasps at him like nothing else. Her fertile flesh invites him to make a home in her body, to plant the seeds of life deep inside. He feels not only wanted here, but both needed and beloved. She is giving him the gift of herself. Not just her body, but her heart and her spirit. She buoys him up when he feels like he might suffocate under the weight of his responsibilities, but if only he could drown in her he would do so gladly. He wants to stay here in this place, only with her, always. _

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again. _

_He is so gentle with her. She can feel the power packed into his muscular form as he drives into her, but he does so with infinite tenderness. She sees the muscles shift beneath his soft skin as he strokes into her welcoming and tender core, and she feels the strength and energy emanating from his form over hers. She takes his energy, nurtures it inside her, and returns it to him as her love. His breath is her breath, his strength is her strength, his passion is her passion, his love is her love. _

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again. _

_He pushes himself more deeply into her. He searches inside her to find that sublime state of being that he can only find here. He trembles with emotion and desire. She cradles his solid form as she accepts him, over and over and over. As they merge, they strengthen the bonds between them, the joining of their bodies twining them ever closer to each other and closer to a state of bliss. He looks every bit the legendary warrior he has become, in the very prime of his life, and he is hers. There is no question, not in this time out of time, in this place outside of place. They have belonged to each other since before they were born, and will remain linked together well after their bodies have merged with the earth._

_They kiss, and kiss, and kiss, again, and again, and again. _

_And together they reach perfection. She wails as her body becomes overwhelmed with tidal waves of ecstasy that wash over both of them, and he plummets into her and explodes. He sobs into her neck as he gives himself to her entirely. Time halts around them. At the same moment, they each think to themselves that perhaps this is it. Perhaps they have finally become just one being instead of two, and perhaps they can stay here forever._

X-x-x-x-X


	26. Chapter 25

X-x-x-x-X  
March 24  
X-x-x-x-X

_Jacob is still seated inside her several minutes later, his body draped over hers, nuzzling her nose with the tip of his. She lets out a long, satisfied sigh and shifts a bit under him, causing him to twitch, lengthen and harden inside her again, and groan. She bites her lip and giggles, and they both hum at the lovely, vibrating sensation taking over them. "Hi, there." His voice is a low rumble. _

_"Mmm," she grasps his buttocks and squeezes. "Hey, yourself." He captures her lips in a languid, loving kiss until he is ready again, and she runs her fingers along the dip over his spine, feeling the dampness of sweat from his exertions. When he finally releases her mouth so she can breathe, she whispers, "You're insatiable."_

_He chuckles, "For you, I am. I could never get enough of you. You taste too damn good." He slips his tongue between her lips and pulls his hips back, then buries himself in her again. Then he growls, "And you feel fucking amazing."_

_Her eyes slip shut as he begins to thrust again in earnest. But on one long outstroke, she feels him slip entirely out of her, and all of a sudden his weight disappears, and he is gone. _

She sits up in her bed, wincing as her stitches pull at her skin, and looks around. What on earth just happened? Where did Jacob go? She wraps her sheets around herself, feeling oddly naked despite her pajamas, and glances at her clock. 1:39 AM. Frustrated tears well up in her eyes. Jacob must have been awoken. She grabs her phone and sends him a text, "Everything ok?" Then she limps out of bed and down the stairs and makes herself a cup of chamomile tea. She sips at it and stares at her phone. By the time she finishes it, she has gotten no response.

Frustrated, she pulls herself back to bed, clutching her phone in her hand. She lies there for a good hour before she manages to fall asleep again, her mind turning over and over with a variety of scenarios about what could have happened to Jacob. But eventually her exhaustion takes over, and she sleeps again.

_The little red house is empty and cold. No spirit welcomes her. She goes straight for his bedroom, and she climbs onto his bed without bothering to change into one of his shirts. She notes again that one of his pillowcases is torn. She tries to remember to ask him about it. Oddly, the curtains are closed. They were open the last time she was here. She parts them and looks out. A small amount of moonlight filters through the heavy cloud cover, and she can see the forest. But instead of seeing it beyond the boundaries of his backyard, the trees are pressed directly up against the house. Jacob is out there somewhere. She can feel him. _

_She slides the creaky window open and hops down to the ground. Her heart beats hard in her chest. She holds out her hands in front of her, one to the right and the other to the left. The right hand is warm, and it tingles. The left feels cool. She turns to her right. She stumbles over roots and rocks in the dark, her bare feet scraping against unseen rough surfaces, but with each step that carries her forward, she can feel herself drawing nearer. If she moves the wrong way, she feels a chill. _

_Her heart carries her forward. And before her, the trees part. He is there. She knows he is. She trips over a fallen branch, but instead of landing on the hard ground, she falls into soft, warm fur. _

_Jacob's red wolf snorts awake at her welcome impact. His eyes, much better in the dark than hers, recognize her instantly, and she sees them glowing at her. She gives him a sheepish smile, and he chuffs at her in amusement and wags his tail happily._

_"I missed you," she whispers. _

_He gives her a wolfish, lopsided grin as she blushes at him. But when she reaches to scratch behind his ears, he makes a rumbling purr from deep in his chest. So she giggles at him in return and gives him an Eskimo kiss on his wet, cold nose. He stares at her warmly as she yawns involuntarily. "I can't sleep without you," she admits. "It's cold if you're not there."_

_He lowers back to the ground, creating a space for her against his side. She gratefully snuggles into his warm fur, and he curls himself protectively around her. She listens to the steady, strong beat of his heart, wholly in sync with hers. They both sense something nearby, just on the edge of consciousness. But they disregard it. It does not affect them, not here, not in this place where they have each other. And so long as each one has the other, they have everything they need._

_She sleeps before he does. He stays awake just to enjoy the feeling of her small body tucked into his. He inhales the scent that is hers alone. He listens to her sigh against him in contentment. He doesn't know where she came from, but he is grateful she came. He was heartsick without her, even in slumber. His arms feel empty when she is not in them. _

_She shivers a little, and he realizes her feet are bare. He shifts a hind leg over them to keep them warm, wraps his tail around her midsection, and falls asleep to the sound of her breaths. _

The next morning, Jacob raises his head in confusion off the forest floor, blinking and shaking his head. It feels as if the temperature has dropped despite the rising of the sun. He looks around in confusion and notices his hip, thigh, and rear paws feel a little sore. He knows what is wrong with his hip, or rather, with Bella's, but examines his feet, seeing nothing, and wonders what Bella did to hers. She is gone, but Jasmine's orange wolf lies still sleeping on a bed of moss several yards away. The night before, he had been dreaming of Bella, a wonderful dream of love and passion, when Jasmine had started whining and woken him up. She was close to being visible in his yard again, so he cleaned up as best he could and followed her back to the clearing in human form, too disappointed and angry to share the pack mind. He had waited until she fell back to sleep before phasing into his wolf and falling asleep again several feet away.

But then, Bella had found him again. He had recognized her scent and her warmth as she had tripped over him in the dark, and his wolf was ecstatic to see her there. He barely restrained himself from licking her face like an overgrown puppy.

Sam and Quil are still patrolling silently. He sees through their eyes and hears their muted thoughts, but neither of them has anything to say. He drops his head down, suddenly depressed. Bella was just here, yes, but only in his dreams. And there is nothing quite like having her next to him, body and soul.

He allows himself a moment of weakness. He imagines himself running to her house, jumping through her window, and kissing her breathless before she leaves for the day. It is safe to harbor such thoughts. Jasmine is still asleep. But after last night, he knows what would happen if he were to try such a thing. She would awaken as soon as he reached the border, if not sooner, and she would be that much longer from phasing back into her human body. He hardly cares, but the leader in him does not allow his own desires to rule him. She is his ward, his to guide, and he can give her to no one else, no matter how much he would like to. Apparently he can reject his imprint upon her, but he is her Alpha, and he cannot drive away one of his own pack.

Soon, Collin phases in, and Sam and Quil phase out. Jacob isn't certain, but he thinks Sam is going to his mother's home rather than to the house he shares with Emily. The ex-Alpha is good at shielding his thoughts, but the pain twisting in his gut as he resists the pull of his imprint is unmistakable.

Jacob eyes Jasmine, who still slumbers in exhaustion. He asks Collin to sit with her while he heads to the Clearwater house. If he hurries, he can catch Leah before she leaves for school. And indeed, when he arrives, she is throwing her bag into the backseat of her car. She looks up as he strides out of the woods. "Morning, Jake," she says with a wave.

"Morning. Are you headed to pick up Bella?"

She nods. "Yeah. What do I tell her? You know she's going to ask. I was over there for a long time yesterday. She was pretty depressed that you haven't come to see her yet."

His face falls, and anger rises in his chest. Bella needs him, but instead he is stuck here doing the last thing on earth he wants to be doing. "Not as depressed as me." He listens carefully, realizing that Jasmine has not followed him. "Every time I try to go see her, Jasmine freaks out. I keep waiting until she's asleep, thinking I can sneak away, but as soon as I hit the border, she wakes up and starts sprinting after me. She almost got herself caught. She's a danger still. Nearly walked into an old lady's backyard while she was on her deck. It's why I haven't been able to make it yet."

Leah smiles gently at him. "She'll understand."

Jacob snarls, "She shouldn't have to."

"Yeah, but what choice do either of you have?"

"That's what really gets to me. It should be a choice." He heaves a heavy sigh. "Just… Just, tell her I love her, okay? Tell her I'm going to come be with her just as soon as I can. Just as soon as it's safe. Tell her I love her, and tell her that I'm so glad she came to me last night."

Leah grins at him suggestively. "Do I get to tease her about that last part?"

He gives her a genuine laugh. "Is there any way for me to stop you?"

"No. I have little enough amusement in my life. I'm going to take it where I can get it." As she climbs into her car, she calls out, "I'll tell her. She'll probably want to come see you if you don't go to her place this afternoon."

"It's not safe!" Jacob protests. "Not yet, okay? She can't get anywhere near Jasmine yet."

"I understand. She will too."

Before she pulls away, Jacob calls out, "Is she okay?"

He hears her answer faintly, "Yeah, just misses you," and then he reluctantly heads back into the woods. He deliberately doesn't phase in. Not being able to see Bella again this morning still feels too raw, and he needs to get his thoughts under control before he allows Jasmine into his brain.

He walks back to the clearing and is relieved to find Jasmine still asleep. He leaves Collin to watch over her while he jogs back to his house for a quick breakfast, arriving just in time to help Billy transfer his wheelchair to the back of his pickup truck so that he can go to the tribal center to get some administrative work done. He calls Rachel while he shovels cereal into his mouth, but leaves a message when she doesn't answer. If anyone can give him guidance through this process, it is her.

When he returns to the clearing, Jasmine is still sleeping. She must be exhausted. Frankly, if he could crawl back in bed for another twelve hours, he would. What a miserable spring break this is. He thought he would be spending his nights in Bella's bed, not out here on the cold ground with a new wolf he can barely stand.

He leaves them to run the patrol route, trying to focus only on the pounding of his paws on the earth and the scent of the spring rain that falls. The precipitation is so light that none of it penetrates his thick hide. Collin examines Jasmine's sleeping form and notes that she will need her hair cut as soon as possible. _Will she want to get the tattoo_? he asks Jacob.

_I'll leave that up to her, I think. _Collin agrees that is probably the right decision. She seems to be a bit of a girly girl, and they have difficulty imagining her agreeing to cut her hair, let alone getting a tattoo. But then again, Leah was the epitome of femininity before her life turned upside down.

Jasmine finally wakes mid morning. Jacob stays generally silent, and she practices watching through his eyes and Collin's at the same time while still trying to see though her own. She and Collin hunt while Jacob patrols, and she manages to take down a small deer this time rather than a rabbit.

Afterward, she seems as calm as she has since phasing, so he returns in an attempt to help her phase back again. This time, she is generally less panicked, but as she does not manage to return to human form, she gets more and more frustrated until they set aside the task to try again tomorrow. By then, Brady has phased back in, and Collin phases out.

And just a few minutes late, Paul enters the pack mind. Jacob hasn't had a chance to talk to him yet, but he can immediately see that Paul has already spoken with Jared and Leah. Hmm. Paul and Leah are friends now? Stranger things have happened, particularly considering the bizarre turn their lives have taken, but not many.

Before Jacob has a chance to give introductions, Paul begins to head Jasmine's way and tells her who he is. And to Jacob's surprise, he then tells Jacob to go ahead and phase out and not to bother waiting for Jared to arrive. Jacob can see that Paul actually wants to speak with Jasmine alone. She watches in trepidation as he leaves, although she relaxes marginally when she sees that he is going to find his father.

He gladly leaves them to themselves. Instead of running to Bella's house, since she isn't there yet, or to his own, which is empty, he heads for the community center. Billy greets him in the main office. "Come on in, son. Did you see the kitchen?"

"No, but I smell food."

"Mrs. Silverfox brought some smoked fish, and her girls baked up a storm. Your aunt dropped off some appetizer things. I don't know what they're called, but they're good. There's quite a spread in there left over from the art committee meeting."

Jacob is gone before his father finishes his sentence, and he returns with two plates piled high with food and a roll stuffed into his mouth. Billy smirks at him. "Do you miss Bella more, your bed, or three square meals a day?"

Jacob swallows the roll in two bites. "Bella first, Bella's cooking second."

Billy says dryly, "And Bella's bed third?"

Jacob's ears turn red, but he doesn't deny it. Instead, he stops Billy before the inevitable lecture. "I know, I know. No babies. Charlie, shotgun, family jewels."

Billy snickers. "That's maybe the silver lining from this imprinting mess. When I can't find you at home in bed at night, I know you're not knocking up my best friend's baby girl."

Jacob says between mouthfuls, "And it is such a mess."

"Did you know Emily Young came to see me today?"

This statement stops Jacob mid-bite. With large, round eyes, he asks, "What did she want?"

"She wanted to know why her fiancé has only been home once in the past week. I told her she should ask him. She did seem to know about Jasmine imprinting on you, though. Wanted to know if Bella was going to be alright."

"What'd you tell her?"

"At first I thought she meant physically. Injuries and all. I told her Rosalie stitched her up."

"Yeah. That first night, Sam did go home for a bit. Said he needed to let her know what was up. I'm sure he told her Bella got hurt."

"That's what I thought she meant. But she seemed to think you were going to break up with Bella."

Jacob narrows his eyes. "She'd better not have said anything like that to Bella. She's dead wrong."

Billy nods. "I explained that to her. Not in so many words, but I did tell her. Opened up a can of worms, though."

"What do you mean?"

"She started crying. Said she thought maybe it's all a sign that she's supposed to let Sam go the way Rachel did with Paul."

"Wow. Really?"

Billy leans back in his chair and rubs his face with his hands. "I doubt she's going to do anything of the sort."

"How can you tell?"

"I raised two teenage daughters, remember? I know the look she was giving me. It was that expression that said, 'I know what I'm supposed to do, but it agonizes me too much, so I'm just going to do whatever the hell I want anyway, then I'm going to cry.'"

Jacob looks at his father quizzically. "There's a look that says all that?"

"Pray you only have sons, Jacob. Pray for sons."

Jacob shrugs. "I guess I have seen that look before. On Bella while she was still with Edward."

"Then you know what I mean."

"Sure, sure," Jacob laughs. "But what about Emily?"

"She needed to talk to Sam, not to me. Or even to you."

"Oh," Jacob throws his hands in the air. "Do not get me mixed up in that mess."

"Well, if this affects Sam, it will affect you. So keep your eye out for those two."

After refilling his plate two more times, Jacob and Billy head home. Jacob is about to pick up the phone and call Bella when Paul knocks on the back door. Jacob nearly growls in frustration, thinking he needs to go calm Jasmine down again, when he notices the easy smile on Paul's face. "What's up? Everything okay?"

"Just having a little chat with our new sister."

"Ugh. Sister. I don't need any more sisters," he sighs in resignation. "How's Rachel, by the way?"

"Great. We bought her new sheets and a new mattress pad this weekend. Those pad thingies that Sue put down saved her bed from complete ruin, but she needed new stuff so we got it. She's still pretty freaked out about, you know, performing surgery where she sleeps. But thank god she was there, huh? Your sister sort of saved the day!" Paul can't keep his grin off his face.

"Yeah. If she hadn't given me the spark I needed, or if she hadn't been able to get that blood off Leah's lungs, she'd be dead right now."

"She's amazing," Paul murmurs with a faraway look on his face.

Jacob tilts his head at Paul. "How about Elle? How's she doing?"

"Huh?" Paul blinks at him. "Oh, Elle. She's good too. Nothing quite so dramatic has happened for her lately."

"You seeing her anytime soon?"

"Yeah. I'll stop by the cafe probably sometime tomorrow. She's got a date on Friday, though."

"Oh, with you? I thought you were headed back to Seattle this weekend."

"No, not with me. Don't tell Rach, okay? She's actually coming here this weekend, I think. She wants to see Leah, and she wanted to spare me the run over there. But Elle and I aren't really seeing each other anymore. I mean, we're hanging out still, we're friends and all, but not dating."

"How come? I thought things were good?"

"They were. They are. But she knows that she and I were never going to be long term. She didn't want that from me, and I didn't want that from her. And some guy came into the cafe last week and asked her out. She likes him; I can tell. She looked really excited. I told her to go for it before she had a chance to ask me if I was okay with it. And I am."

"Wow. How about you, any other prospects?"

"Nah, not right now," Paul shrugs. "It's cool. She's not the only girl around, you know? Maybe your sister will hook me up with a college girl. Or maybe one of Leah's new friends can introduce me to somebody. Hell, I'm in Seattle almost as much as I am here. Anyway, that's not why I'm here. Why don't you take off for a couple of hours? See your girl."

"Seriously?" Jacob's eyes are as wide as saucers.

"Seriously."

"But she loses her damn mind every time I pull away, even if I'm dreaming and not actually gone."

"She can feel you pulling away. Dream, body, whatever. I mean, your dreams aren't just dreams, Jacob. You're really with Bella. It makes her crazy, yeah, knowing you're out there with another woman. It took, like, everything she had last night to stay in the woods for even the little time you slept in your bed."

"Guess you know better than I do what that's like."

"That's also how I know Jasmine'll be okay for a little while, even if she doesn't think she will. I'll keep her from doing anything really stupid. Although, if you can keep it to two or three hours and not come home smelling like, you know, pheromones and sex and shit, that would probably help a ton."

Billy calls out from the living room, "I like Paul's new rule. Let's make it permanent."

"Damn. I could hug you right now!"

"Please don't," Paul laughs.

"Wow. What'd you say to her? Every time I try to go over there, she has a damn panic attack."

Paul just shrugs. "I told her about me and Rach. And how I sort of scared her off at first by basically stalking her. Told her that approach only pisses of a Black, showed her how things are between us now. She'll work on it, and I'll work on it with her."

"Damn. Thanks, man."

"And you should think about welcoming her to the pack somehow." At Jacob's dark glare, Paul holds up his hands. "I know, I know. You just want to welcome her with your claws and teeth after what she did to Bella. But she's one of us, man. It was an accident, and she's working on it. Every single other wolf got a welcome bonfire. Something should happen for her too, so this isn't just a purely negative experience for her. She'll calm down sooner if she thinks she's going to be accepted in some way. She'll be less dangerous. Trust me."

Jacob begrudgingly answers, "Well, Seth and Embry should be back by the weekend. Maybe we can have a bonfire if the weather holds."

Paul grins at him. "That's the idea. Go see Bella for a bit, Jake. You'll feel better. Just give me, oh, half an hour to make sure she'll be cool. Then go, okay?"

The next five minutes feel like five hours. Finally, Jacob places a call to Rachel to help the time pass and to get her advice. She picks up on the third ring. "Hey! Is everything okay?" she asks breathlessly.

"Hi, Rach. Not really."

"How's Bella? Leah and Paul both gave me updates."

He sits heavily in the kitchen chair. "I don't even know. I haven't seen her since she got hurt. Every time I try to leave, Jasmine totally freaks out. She almost got spotted by a lady in her backyard. Not to mention she already nearly killed my girlfriend," he growls. "It hasn't been safe to leave, and it's definitely not safe enough for her to come here. It's killing me to be apart from her."

"I'm sorry. I remember how bad it was at first. Paul freaked the hell out of me, but at least he had his normal wolf stuff under control before I came along. Can she phase yet?"

"Nope. Stuck as a wolf. Which means every time I phase in, I hear the imprint. It's overwhelming. I can't even describe it. I mean, I've seen how it works in the other guys' brains. But that was never aimed at me, you know?"

He hears her moving about her apartment. The clink of ice cubes follows. She seems to be mixing herself a drink. She finally asks what she really wants to know. "And what about the other way around?"

"You mean, did I imprint on her back?"

"Yeah," she asks quietly.

"I talked to Dad about that. He thinks my wolf and I rejected the imprint the first time I saw her. So, no. I didn't."

"Wow," she breathes. "I didn't know that was possible."

"I don't think anyone did. But my wolf loves Bella every bit as much as I do. He wasn't about to let her get hurt. Wasn't about to let some other woman come between us. Hell. He'd kill Jasmine if I let him."

"Do you think that's all it took? I mean, Sam really did love Leah. Still does, although it's only in a useless, too late, not enough sort of way."

"But his wolf only loves her like a sister. They disagree, and for along time, the wolf's desires won out. My wolf just wants to avenge Bella. I have to hold him back from ripping out her throat."

Rachel sips at her drink. After a pause, she says, "You know what I think?"

"What?"

"Well, you said you have to stop your wolf from hurting Jasmine, right?"

"Right."

"I think you're just stronger than your wolf. I think he submits to your will instead of the other way around. I think Sam didn't know enough, didn't realize that he could even fight back. So it took him way too long to figure it out. But you're too stubborn. Just like mom."

"Just like you!" he laughs, and she joins him. He wonders to himself if she is right. He thinks there is more to it than that. After they both catch their breath, He says, "As much as I would like to take credit for keeping my free will intact, I think it's more complicated than that. The connection I have with Bells is just bigger than an imprint. I mean, have you ever heard about any other couple who can feel each other's physical pain? I knew she got hurt the second Jasmine ripped into her. I could feel it in my own hip. I still sort of do. She's sore, therefore so am I. And our hearts beat together. In sync. What we've got? It's different."

"It's powerful. You love her like crazy, I know." Rachel is smiling. He can hear it in her voice.

"I do. But what do I do about Jasmine?"

He hears the tense tone in her voice. "That's up to you, right? That's basically what you told me."

"I know it is. I'm not going to start dating her or anything. She knows I love Bella and that it's not going to change. But I'm not just her imprint. I'm her Alpha. She needs me the way any new pack member needs the Alpha, only even more so."

"Way more so."

He rubs the back of his neck in an unconscious gesture. "It's awful, Rach. I can see in her brain. See just how overwhelming the imprint is. How it refocuses everything she sees, touches, thinks. It's all focused completely on me. And it's worse since I'm Alpha. Do you know that when I wanted to kill her, punish her for what he did to Bella, she didn't just accept it. She welcomed it. Bared her throat to me. She wanted to die since I wanted to kill her. It was awful. I don't want that power over anyone. It's just wrong," he spits out.

"So don't abuse your power."

"I know, but how? All I want to do is send her away. Or run away myself. All I want is to be with Bella. Keep her safe. That's all."

"I remember the feeling. And I wasn't nearly as involved with Trevor as you are with Bella when Paul imprinted on me. It's too much, isn't it?"

"Way too much. How did you do it? How'd you stand it?"

"I just gave it time. Tried not to lead him on but still spend time with him."

"But I don't want to spend time with her. I want to strangle her," he snarls.

Rachel laughs. "Okay, try not to do that. It does get better, remember? At first, wasn't Paul trying to sleep in the woods behind the house? But now we can just see each other once a weekend and he's okay. He's better than okay."

"Yeah, I guess. I just can't imagine even really being friends. Not after what she did to Bella."

"She didn't mean to, right? And stranger things have happened," Rachel retorts. "You're friends with a vampire."

"Rose?"

"Who else?"

"That's true," he admits reluctantly.

"Just take it a day at a time, Jake. Work on one thing at a time. Just being safe first, then phasing back, and worry about the imprint later. Let your brothers do as much as they can; the imprinted ones will probably help her a lot. And if you don't become friends with her, that's okay. She already lives on the Rez. It's not like Paul and me being hours apart and having his chest hurt when we go too long without seeing each other. She'll live without you even if she doesn't think she can."

"I guess you're right. I just want it to be gone, is all."

"Well, you rejected your part in imprinting. Maybe she can too."

"God, I hope so. I just wish I knew how it happened so I could tell her how."

"Go call Bella. It'll make you feel better. And you'll be drawing your line in the sand so Jasmine knows where you stand."

"Actually, Paul's working on getting her calm enough so I can go to her house."

Rachel laughs. "Wow. He's come a long way, huh? Who'd have thought Paul could teach someone else how to calm down?"

"Thanks to you, anyway. You've been good for him."

"See? It's gonna be okay. Just give it time."

"Thanks, Rach. Will we see you this weekend?"

"I'll be there Friday or Saturday."

"See you then."

And as soon as he hangs up, he sees Paul nod at him from the woods. Less than a minute later, Jacob is jogging to Forks. Faintly, he hears the thudding of paws somewhere behind him, but they stop at the treaty line. For some reason, Jasmine seems to find the border significant even though they no longer need to worry about crossing over that line. He doesn't really know why she does, but he is grateful nonetheless.

Twenty minutes later, he can hear Bella moving around her house. He frowns as he hears a limp in her step. But it turns into an involuntary smile when he hears the clatter of a pan falling to the floor and muttering under her breath, "Oh, cheese and crackers!" Then he is close enough to hear her heartbeat.

He knocks on her front door eagerly. He watches her face brighten as she opens the door to reveal him standing before her. Surprise turns into a wide grin, and before he can watch the relief play across her face, he sweeps her gently up into a tender embrace. He wraps his right arm around her waist, being careful not to grab her over the injury on her left side, buries his other hand in her hair as he cradles her skull in his palm, and turns his face into her sweet smelling hair with a huge sigh of relief and satisfaction. "Oh, Bells," he breathes into her skin. "I'm so, so sorry I couldn't be here sooner. It's been killing me to be apart from you, but it just wasn't safe to leave."

She clings to his neck and whispers, "Shhh. Just hold me for a minute."

He happily complies, kicking the door shut with his foot. He doesn't pull away until he feels dampness on his neck. "Oh no, honey, are you crying? Is it that bad? Tell me."

She sniffs in embarrassment and doesn't look him directly In the eye, staring at a point in the center of his chest. He lets her back down on her feet, but he doesn't let her go. "I was... I was just worried."

"About what?"

She pauses, chewing her bottom lip and hooking her index fingers into the belt loops of his cutoffs. He strokes her face with the backs of his fingers, gently pushing her thick hair back so he can see her better. "Leah said she imprinted, Jake. I was worried that maybe… maybe you imprinted back." She mumbles the last part so low that if it were not for his supernatural hearing, he never would have understood her.

He carefully picks her up, moving to the couch and settling her in his lap. He tips her chin with the crook of his index finger so that she has to look him in the eye. "I love you. I have loved you ever since I can remember. Each thing I learn about you makes me love you even more. That's never going to change. I'm only going to love you more every day for the rest of our lives. Okay?"

She sees sincerity written plainly across his face, but answers, "And Sam loves Leah. It still didn't matter in the end."

He almost glares at her. "I'm not Sam." His voice is hard. But then it softens. "I don't love her. I don't even like her. It's all I can do to keep from attacking her. But there is something you should know." Fear takes over her heart, and he can feel his own beating wildly in his chest. He places his left hand directly over her heart and says, "I had a chance to talk to my father. We think that she probably was intended to be my imprint." Her heart actually skips a beat, and she takes a quick intake of breath. He barrels on before she gets the wrong idea. "But without trying, without really doing anything other than loving you more than I could ever imagine loving anybody else, I rejected the imprint. My wolf rejected the imprint. It's why my wolf wanted to attack her the moment I saw her. He knew she would be a threat to you, to us. He could probably sense who she was, or who she would become. And he loves you more than I could ever express. So we rejected the imprint. There's nothing left of it for me, except for when she touches me. Just the most basic of meaningless physical reactions, and nothing more."

She whispers, "That doesn't really sound so meaningless to me."

"But it doesn't mean what you're worried about. It isn't some subconscious desire to sleep with her. That's all directed at you. Ask Leah. She wouldn't lie, she's been in my head. She'll tell you that I really, honestly, truly only want you. You're the only girl I fantasize about, the only one I want to touch, to kiss, to hold, to make love to. I love you and I want you and there's no other girl in the universe for me. My wolf knows it and I know it. Okay?"

She nods and gives him a small smile. "Okay. I love you too. I'm sorry, everybody's been telling me not to worry. Not about your feelings for me, anyway. Even Charlie."

He grins at her. "Smart man. But don't apologize. Not after what happened." He sadly traces his fingers over her thigh, being careful not to hurt her at all. "I'm so sorry I didn't protect you."

"Shh," she murmurs. Then she gently turns him to her with her hand on his cheek, and his lips meet hers as their eyes fall shut.

The kiss starts off as a sweet, gentle brushing back and forth, and the mingling of breaths. Then he purses his lips together for one tiny peck. But one becomes two, two becomes four, and four turns into an endless caress. His lips are soft, full, and oh so warm. His heat flows into her at every point of contact, his kiss, the fingers of his right hand grasping at her scalp, his left hand slipping under her shirt to palm her waist, his chest pressed into her side and his lap cradling her bottom. Her mouth tastes like peppermint from the tea she had made before he arrived, and her skin is softer than silk.

She lets out a contented sigh, and he takes the opportunity to slip the tip of his tongue just inside to taste her. He groans in satisfaction, and she tightens her grip on his shoulders in response. Now that she has him, she isn't going to let go.

He draws her full bottom lip between his and suckles gently, causing her to gasp, and he sinks his fingers deeper into her inviting flesh. She can feel her whole body humming against him, and she wonders how she ever doubted him. Jacob's kisses aren't just warm and soft, passionate and loving. His touch is energy. Light. Magic itself. Somehow, she knows that kissing anyone else, even another wolf with their heat and strength, could never compare to this. Because with each seductive movement, Jacob entwines his soul with hers even more tightly.

He loses himself gladly in her scent, her taste, her baby soft skin. He traces the dip of her spine with his fingers, tangles his fist in her hair. He hears only the sounds of her soft moans and hitching breaths, and underneath it, the steady beat of her heart. He would crawl inside her and never leave if he could do so, for she is his home.

And against her hip he lengthens, hardens, and begins to ache. She is his lifeblood, his passion, his joy. He wants badly to express with his body exactly what he feels for her, but the dull, stinging pain in his own thigh and hip remind him that now is not the time. He pulls his lips reluctantly from hers, tipping his forehead to rest against hers. With his eyes squeezed shut, he slowly regains control over his body. Their panting breaths even out, and he loosens his grip on her until it is feathery light. "We gotta stop, baby. I want you so much, but we can't. I don't want to hurt you."

"You would never hurt me." She reaches up to run her fingers through his hair. "You never have."

He smiles. "Let's keep it that way, huh? I only want to make you feel good."

"Like last night?" she teases.

"Last night was amazing." His voice is low and rough. "But there's nothing quite like really being inside you."

"Mmm." She tilts her head to kiss him again. "There's no better sensation on earth than having you deep, all the way in, pinning me down and... Jake, now I want to."

He chuckles and squeezes her shoulder rhythmically. "You're killing me here, Bells. But if we did that now, it wouldn't feel so good. I don't even think you'd be able to spread your legs enough for me get down there and use my tongue." He gently fingers her stitches.

She pouts. "I know. You're right. But it's been so long."

He grins at her and lightly touches her nose with the tip of her index finger. "Like, a week and a half, I think, if we don't count last night. You're such a hot little thing. What'd you do before you let me touch you, baby?"

"You make me this way. I wasn't so ridiculously horny before you."

"I don't believe you," he laughs.

"I was sexually frustrated. That's what I was. It's not the same at all."

He nips at her lips with his teeth playfully before murmuring, "I'll bet you touched yourself all the time, didn't you?"

"I couldn't!" she retorts quickly. "Edward was a cold fish, you know that, but he was always in here! I never had a moment to myself, and I wasn't about to do anything if I thought he would show up at any second."

"He didn't," he chokes out, "He never..."

"You know we never did anything!" she interrupts, surprised. "His kisses barely even qualified as kisses. You know, because of the venom."

"No, not that. I know that," he answers hastily. "He never, uh, walked in on you, did he?"

"Oh, no. I mean, unless you count those first dreams I had with you. When you touched me, made love to me from far away. You remember. He was there once when I called out your name!"

He smirks smugly. "Heh. Poor bastard. I almost feel bad for the guy." He doesn't mean a word of it.

She drops her gaze and bites her lip. "Well, I'd never have admitted this back then. I figured out I was in lust with you way before I figured out I was in love. And I'd gotten so used to the feel of your skin, your heat, and I was just deprived of it when he got all possessive and wouldn't let me see you," she trails off for a second. "On the rare occasion I was sure he wouldn't walk in on me, I couldn't help but think of you when I touched myself."

He gulps, and his smirk disappears. "You're killing me here. I want you so bad right now."

"Me too," she whispers. She shifts to straddle him, but immediately winces and pulls back. "Okay, not so much right now."

"Oh, honey," he croons. "Let me just take care of you." At her pointed glance, he laughs. "Not that way. You're hurt, and I can help you get around the house. Stuff like that. What were you about to do when I got here?"

"Cook dinner. And I need to shower. Rose told me to leave the stitches dry yesterday, but I'm supposed to wash them off and keep them clean now. But I'm worried about touching them at all. It's going to sting."

"Okay, then." He gently lifts her up and starts up the stairs. "Let me give you a bath."

"She said no baths, just shower or sponge bath for now."

"Then that's what we'll do." He helps her change into her bathrobe before getting a small plastic stool and space heater from the basement. He warms up the bathroom to ward away the chill, then lifts her into the tub, settling her onto the stool, and pulls back the shower curtain. Charlie had installed a removable, handheld showerhead when Bella moved in. He pulls it down and keeps it trained on her scalp and back, carefully avoiding her tender wound, as she lathers her arms and torso, then shampoos her own hair. She sees him staring at her nude, wet form, but her stitches keep him from being truly aroused. When it comes time to wash the wound itself, Jacob takes over. The touch of his fingers to her skin is incredibly soothing, just as it was when she initially sustained the injury. They discover that if she applies soap and water to the large cut, her skin stings exquisitely. But if Jacob does the exact same thing, the sensation is only mildly tender. So he carefully washes the wound and rinses it clean. Lastly, he examines her feet as he soaps them up. He remembers that his own feet were a bit tender earlier in the morning. He hadn't injured himself, so he thought perhaps she had. But she had barely noticed them in her distraction from her much larger wound. He looks carefully but sees no blemishes. "What happened here, honey? Did you hurt your feet earlier today? I felt something, but I don't see anything now."

"I don't know. I woke up sort of sore. It's been getting better through the day, though."

He kisses one of her toes. "Is that because you were running around outside when you came to find me?"

"In our dream?" she asks with wide eyes.

"Yeah."

"I guess I did feel like I scraped them when I was looking for you. It's fine, though."

As he rinses all the suds from her body, he smiles at her. "Thank you so much for coming to find me last night. I was crushed when I woke up just as we were starting to make love again. And my wolf has missed you so much. So when you showed up in the dream, when you curled up in my fur, it was the happiest the wolf has been in ages."

She agrees. "I couldn't really sleep without you. I needed to find you."

"I'm so glad you did."

Then he lifts her out of the tub to keep her from having to bend her leg too much, pats her dry with two large, soft towels, and redresses her lacerations with gauze before helping her into a loose pair of sweats. She doesn't need all the help, but he likes doing it so much that she lets him brush her hair out as well. He will take any excuse to touch her, and she can't help but enjoy being pampered in this way.

When they go downstairs, Jacob proves himself again as a good sous chef. He has her order him around her kitchen, and he follows her instructions to a tee. That is, until he swipes a little sauce across Bella's nose. She squeals in protest that he just finished getting her clean and retaliates by tossing at him the closest projectile at hand, some chopped bell peppers. He lobs an uncooked mushroom at her head. By the time Charlie comes home in the evening, Billy following in his own truck, Bella is perched on Jacob's lap picking lettuce out of his hair as he nibbles on her neck, and the salad is mostly on the floor.

As they all enjoy the meal, Charlie looks around his kitchen table with satisfaction. After years of eating frozen dinners in front of his television, this is entirely satisfying. It would be better, of course, if his daughter was not injured, but this is his family. Jacob looks more content than he has in days, and the worry lines from his daughter's face have disappeared. This is the way it should be. This is the way it always should have been. His daughter, his best friend's son, they should still be carefree teenagers. Her biggest worries should be about college, or whether her truck is going to break down, not about being mauled by a werewolf. Jacob ought to be worried about taking his daughter out on dates or about his grades, not about keeping a rogue pack member under control or how to keep vampires away from his tribe.

But now, for this hour, at least, they can just enjoy each other's company. Charlie can eat dinner with his family, listen to his best friend tell stories, watch Jacob and Bella make eyes at each over the table, and drink his favorite beer. Right now, life is good.

Jacob's good mood turns sour as soon as he kisses Bella goodbye and jogs away from the house, because the moment he reaches the forest, he finds Jasmine and Paul waiting for him. Jasmine cowers behind her pack brother as Jacob barely contains himself long enough to step out of sight and remove his clothing before he destroys them.

As soon as he phases, he sees what happened. She had managed to wait patiently for only around an hour at the treaty line before the imprint yanked her toward him. Paul had trailed close behind to ensure that she would not expose herself or put anyone in danger. She had paced impatiently in the woods behind Bella's house while listening to Jacob and Bella playfully prepare dinner and eat it with Charlie.

Jacob is wordlessly furious. She could have lost control and hurt Bella again, and she has breached his privacy. His control slips away with his anger, and he allows to slip through a stray image of himself helping Bella bathe. Jasmine is immediately consumed with envy at the thought of his hands caressing Bella's nude form, and Jacob can't stop himself from leaping at her in his anger.

Paul, luckily, knocks him away before he can do any real damage to his pack sister. He immediately stalks off and phases back into his human form, snarling, "I'd better not see you again tonight, and if you go anywhere within a mile of Bella, you're dead."

Jacob can hear her, not very far away, until he falls asleep that evening. He isn't surprised, but he is relieved that she doesn't come close enough for him to catch sight of her again. He spends the rest of the evening in a black mood. Billy stays out of his way until he makes his way to the shower. He doesn't bother fully drying off before he falls into bed, and he is asleep in moments.

_When he opens the door to his room, the handle is warm and the air smells like vanilla and strawberries in the midst of the dampness from the heavy spring rain. His eyes adjust quickly to the darkness. No moonlight filters in through the window, but rain patters against the glass. He smiles when he sees her curled up in his sheets, breathing even and easy as she sleeps, hair fanned out over his pillow. He quietly closes the door behind him and slides out of his towel. It makes a little rustling noise when he drops it on the floor, and she rolls over to blink at him with a sleepy smile._

_"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."_

_"I'm glad. Why would I want to sleep when I can spend time with you instead?" She pulls back the corner of the sheet to invite him in._

_He climbs in gladly, and she immediately wraps her arms around his waist, snuggling close and burying her nose into his muscular chest. He smells clean, and his hair is still damp. "I'm dripping all over the bed."_

_She giggles, "Usually you make me do that."_

_He snorts in surprise. "Did you just make a juvenile sex joke?"_

_"Maybe," she blushes and stares at his neck. "Sorry."_

_"No, no," he laughs. "You should do it more often. That was awesome. I loved it. I love you," he squeezes her tightly against him._

_She smiles and strokes her fingers up and down his side. "I love you too."_

_He tugs her even closer so that he can tuck her head under his chin. "I want to tell you all the things I love about you. I love the way you make me laugh." He kisses the crown of her head. "I love how silly I can be with you. I love that you laugh at my dumb jokes."_

_She scoots up until she can kiss him sweetly on the lips. "I love your jokes. But they are dumb," she giggles._

_"And I love how you stroke my ego," he laughs warmly._

_"Your ego is pretty big with or without me," she retorts. "But there's something else that gets a lot bigger when I stroke it."_

_They both dissolve into helpless laughter. "Oh my god, you're totally outdoing yourself tonight! I'm so impressed."_

_"It's your fault. You taught me to be this way. I'm not this way around anybody else."_

_"Too bad. You're a riot. But is that all I've taught you?"_

_She smirks at him. "Should I give you a demonstration of the other things I've learned?"_

_"Ooh. Feisty. Yes, please."_

_She bites her lip. "Okay, lie down." She pushes him into his back. "Put your hands behind your head." He complies. She straddles his thighs and looks him up and down, blatantly staring at his abdominal muscles. She reaches out a single finger to trace them, and they jump under her touch. Then she runs her index finger along the V of his external obliques._

_"Mmm," he hums, expecting her to grasp him in her fist. His cock lengthens as she watches him, pulsing and awaiting for her. She leans over and braces her left hand by his right side, tilting her head down to kiss his neck, brushing the soft skin of her belly against his arousal. But then he feels her smile against his skin. Her hand slips up. And then she tickles him mercilessly, fingers of her left hand flying over his ribs, her right tormenting his clavicle. He shakes and whoops and laughs until tears slip out of his eyes. He twists and squirms beneath her, but he is careful not to toss her off or hurt her._

_"I've learned your weak spots, and I love attacking them," she yells triumphantly._

_When she finally slows, he flips them over and kisses her as they giggle together. "I love that you only use your knowledge of my weaknesses for good rather than for evil."_

_"That was good?"_

_"Yeah. I love it when you touch me, even if it's to make me laugh instead of making me hot and bothered. And naughty girl, I do love it when you get me hot and bothered. You're damn good at it."_

_"I do love touching you. Even when you're sleeping you respond to it. You hum and scoot closer to me even if you don't wake up."_

_"I love having you in my arms when we sleep. I love how you fit against me like a puzzle piece."_

_She runs her hands up and down his flanks. "I love how tightly you hold me. I love how strong you are, physically, mentally, emotionally, but still so gentle. I feel so safe with you."_

_"I want to protect you from any bad thing that might ever happen. But I feel the same way about you."_  
_He rests his head on her shoulder. "I used to feel like I might lose myself. But you anchor me. I know you'll never let me go."_

_She runs her fingers through his thick hair. "I might be a fool sometimes, but now that I know what it's like to be with you, be loved by you, I can't ever imagine giving you up. I'm your fool."_

_He chuckles. "And I'm a fool for you. Always have been."_

_"A damn sexy fool, then. This is so superficial of me." She traces circles on his broad back and smiles. "But I love how hot you are. In every sense of the word. You keep me so warm, and you're so ridiculously gorgeous."_

_He picks up his head to grin at her. "I freely admit to being every bit as shallow as you are. I love how beautiful you are." He traces her bottom lip with his thumb. "And sexy, too." He drops his gaze to the shirt she wears, a soft, faded, cotton tee that he wore when he was younger. "You are so naturally lovely," he murmurs. "No caked on makeup or can of hairspray. Just as sexy in jeans and a tee shirt as fancy lingerie. But this, this is my favorite. You look positively edible wearing my clothing. That is, if you have to wear anything at all."_

_She blushes and tells him, "I love how beautiful you make me feel."_

_He looks at the pink tinge in her cheek and answers, "And I love how responsive you are to me. I love that blush of yours. Always have."_

_"I don't," she covers her cheeks with her hands. "It's embarrassing."_

_"Nah," he reassures her and gently pulls her hands away. "It's sweet and sexy all at once. Trust me."_

_"It's only because I'm pale as paper!"_

_"Baby," he licks his lips and his eyes flick up and down her skin. "You practically glow in the moonlight. Your skin is perfect. I love how soft it is."_

_"Yours is soft. And so, so warm." She runs her hands up and down his arms to illustrate. "How are your muscles so big and hard but you still feel so soft?"_

_Now it is his turn to blush. He drops his head, showing off his mop of hair. "I can't really take credit for the way I look, can I? Wolfing out came with lots of crap, but I guess I should feel lucky this part of it helped you notice me."_

_She smiles at the top of his head. "You were always gorgeous, Jacob. I was just sort of blind. But, um, this body? It's really hard to miss," she giggles. Then she runs her fingers through his hair. "It's not fair how thick and shiny this is. Your hair belongs on a girl, or at least it did when it was long. I miss playing with it before you chopped it off. But I have to admit, the short cut shows off your face better."_

_He playfully narrows his eyes at her. "What's with all this flattery, anyway? Are you trying to butter me up for something?"_

_"I'm trying to get you to stay with me forever," she smiles. "Is it working?"_

_His returning smile is as bright as the sun. "You couldn't keep me away if you tried. I'm yours. Every inch of me. Flaws and all."_

_She pulls him down for a sweet, intimate kiss. When he releases her, she says, "And I'm yours. I never knew it could feel this good, this purely good and right, to be with another human being. Even when it's bad, it's good."_

_He smiles down at her. "I love being with you under any circumstance. Everything is better when you're around."_

_She reaches to wrap her arms around his waist. "The world makes more sense when you're next to me. I feel like I can do anything. Like I can face any challenge. If I don't know how to do something, you can show me how, or we can figure it out together."_

_He places tiny fluttering butterfly kisses across her face. "And when the world is too much, when I feel like there's just no way to face everything I have to accomplish, you give me peace. You're my comfort. My haven. You're my home."_

_"And you're mine," she squeezes his shoulders. "I love how happy you make me."_

_"Oh, Bells. You make me so happy too."_

_And they spend the rest of the night in a cocoon of gentle touches, loving words, and soft kisses. Neither of them say so, but they are afraid that if they express their love more physically, they will be pulled apart. But it does not matter. Their words are true and their hearts are full. They drift off to sleep wrapped in each other after an indeterminate time, and they do not let go until morning. _

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my beta, Babs81410 at JBNP. Apologies that last week's update was missing in favor of the Sam/Leah one-shot I posted, Barbed Wire and String, which distracted me from this story (although anyone who was disappointed with Sam and Leah's trajectory in this tale should go read the other one). Expect another chapter on Friday but none next week, as I will be out of the country and away from an internet connection.


	27. Chapter 26

X-x-x-x-X  
March 25  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob awakens Tuesday morning feeling more rested than he has since Leah was injured. He still misses the peaceful, hazy moments of waking slowly with Bella in his arms, but spending all night with her in a dream is the next best thing. He reaches for his phone as soon as he realizes where he is and sends her a quick text. "Thanks for a wonderful night. Luv u."

She immediately replies, "U2. Miss u".

He stretches and looks out the window. He cannot see Jasmine, but he knows she is there. She probably hasn't moved all night. He reminds himself of Rachel's advice. He needs to take this one step at a time, and the first step is just to get her to phase back into her human form.

He has little faith she will be able to do it today. Without Jacob's acceptance of her, she cannot calm down enough. She approaches the end of each of his shifts with intense trepidation, and she spends each moment he is outside the pack mind counting down the minutes until he returns. But when he finally comes back, she is overwhelmed with guilt and self loathing for being something he does not want her to be. And his trip to Forks to see Bella was miserable for her, both because of his distance as well as her intense jealousy of the woman who holds his love, not to mention his intense anger when he realized she followed him.

But today his good mood makes him kinder. When he phases in for patrol, Jasmine's ears immediately perk up. She in the clearing near his house that was just out of hearing range, while Collin already runs patrol through the muddy grass. The steady rain has lightened to a constant drizzle, not heavy enough to penetrate their thick pelts. But it has rained long enough to make a mess out of the ground below them.

Jacob doesn't even try to ask her to work on phasing. She had been up half the night worrying about how angry he would be when he saw her next. Instead of reprimanding her for following him the evening before, he calmly explains to her that he had a good night. Until that point, he had not disclosed his ability to share dreams with Bella. He spends much of the day telling her a heavily edited version of their discovery of their somnolent activities. He tries his best to block out any explicit memories, but she understands the unspoken undercurrent of his words. He hardens himself against her despair. It is for the best, better for her to understand exactly where she stands. It will do neither of them any good for her to believe she stands a chance to win his heart.

When he tells her of his ability to feel Bella's physical pain, and she his, as well as their synced heartbeats, she mentions, _It sounds like twins._

_What do you mean? _Collin asks.

_Have you ever heard of that before? I know a pair of twins from my last school. Each one claimed they knew if something bad was happening to the other. _

Jacob muses, _Huh. Yeah. I never thought about it like that. But when Rachel and Rebecca were little, they did seem to have a connection like that. They had their little unique twin language that nobody else understood. And I remember that when Becca broke her wrist falling out of a tree, Rach swore she could feel it._

Jasmine answers, _My friends used to say that since they started off as one person, that part of them stayed that way. _

Jacob finds himself smiling and wagging his tail involuntarily. _I like that. I like thinking that Bella is really just part of me. It sure feels that way._

Jasmine says nothing, but he notices that a part of her feels quite pleased to have made him happy. The bigger part of her thinks that she feels the same way about him.

He quickly moves on and tells her the story of how Edward Cullen scared Bella into staying with him, recruited Bree to lure Jacob away, then kidnapped Bella and nearly killed Seth. She listens, enraptured, as he explains how he discovered his own ability to spirit walk, how he rescued Bella, how he and the pack had killed Edward, and then how they tricked the Volturi away. This leads to another explanation as to the different covens of vampires that they know about, as well as Irina's death and the new threat from Tanya.

They even began to discuss the more metaphysical aspects of vampirism. Jacob had not yet had a chance to speak with the pack about the sparks of life he had seen in Rosalie and Carlisle, so Collin joins the discussion with fascination when he tells them about what he has seen inside all the Cullens, as well as the twin stars he finds in each of the shifters.

By the time they finish speaking, it is midday. Jasmine is as calm as she has been since she shifted, so they try once more to have her shift back to her human form. Their efforts are in vain. As the end of Jacob's shift approaches, she becomes more and more nervous. Soon, Jacob sees that she is not only less likely to phase, but also becoming more careless and, therefore, dangerous. He aborts the attempt. When Paul phases in, he sends them hunting. Her mood immediately improves, and Jacob goes home for a quick shower before beginning a spirit walk to check on Seth and Embry, who have still not returned.

_Before searching for his brothers, Jacob soars high above Olympic National Forest looking for the black voids that signify vampires. The forest is safe. He lifts himself higher, searching widely until he is certain the entire peninsula is free of such threats. The only vampire anywhere near them is Rosalie with her distinctive, fiery glow. _

_Then he reaches out for Embry's spirit. The twin lights of the human spirit and the man are like beacons. Upon finding him only seconds later, he pulls himself toward his old friend in the span of the blink of an eye. Embry slumbers in human form only feet away from an old brown bear. The taxilit raises its head to look at Jacob, nods at him in brief acknowledgement, then quietly goes back to sleep. _

_Jacob leaves them to find Seth. The boy is gingerly picking his way up a treacherous, rocky outcropping on the side of a windswept mountain. The rain makes the climb treacherous, but Seth's grip is sure. His guide, the grizzled mountain lion, awaits him at the top, placidly looking down at him. It breaks its gaze from him only to stare at Jacob as he soars overhead. Jacob circles until Seth is safely at the top. The lion leads him to a natural shelter created by a shelf of stone in the side of the mountain. Jacob watches in fascination as Seth lies flat on his back next to the lion. Jacob retreats somewhat so that he doesn't disturb Seth. In only a few minutes, Seth's spirit rises from his body. He stands, formless, under the rain a few feet from his body, staring back at the lion. The lion gives a nod, and Seth extends his hands upward. His eyes turn up to the low hanging clouds. Suddenly, he shoots upward, and where he meets the cloud, a bolt of lightning flashes through the sky. Jacob grins at him, wanting to go to his friend. But the mountain lion growls at him, so he retreats. _

Satisfied, Jacob returns to his body. As soon as he sits up, he notices his heart racing in his chest. It must be Bella's, although he notices no more pain than the dull throb from her wound. When he enters his kitchen, his father holds the phone out to him. "Jacob, you're just in time. Bella's on the line with some news."

Jacob takes the phone immediately. His father's serious expression and his racing heart keep him from yelling out an enthusiastic greeting. "Hi, sorry if you've been waiting for me."

"No, no. You're fine. It's no emergency. At least, I don't think so."

"Tell me," he prompts.

"Rosalie came over to meet me and Leah when we got back from Port Angeles."

"Oh yeah?"

The anxiety is thick in her voice. "She's got some bad news. Carlisle called. They're going into hiding."

"Uh oh. Why?"

"Alice has been watching the Denali coven and the Volturi like a hawk since Irina attacked Leah last week. You remember that Tanya was going to go to the Volturi to ask for their help in avenging Irina and Edward?"

Jacob frowns. "Of course." How could he possibly forget? She also had a vision about a room splattered with blood.

"Well, it sounds like it happened already, and just like she predicted, they turned her away without even hearing her out."

"How is that a bad thing?"

"Apparently her appearance must have triggered them to reevaluate their whole structure. They must have realized how powerless they are without Chelsea and Jane. They made a decision."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It's not. Not for the Cullens, anyway. They're going to try to take vampires with valuable powers and coerce them into the guard. With or without their consent. They're coming for Alice and Jasper."

Jacob breathes out, "Shit. So they're going underground?"

"Yeah. Carlisle, Esme, Alice and Jasper. Alice can see that if they don't run or turn themselves in, at least one of them will die."

"What about Rose and Emmett?"

Jacob can hear Rosalie in the background. "Screw running away! I'm not afraid. I've finally figured out how to make use of this empty existence of mine, and I'm damn well going to accomplish something before I die for real. Besides, I've got no powers. I'm useless to them."

"What does Alice have to say about that?" Jacob asks.

"She hates it, but she doesn't really know what's going to happen to Rose. She can't see much, maybe because she's spending so much time with the pack. But she does get some glimpses of Rose and Emmett looking happy and healthy. Once Rose heard that, she refused to reconsider. Esme really wants them all to go away together, but you know Rose. And Emmett goes where she goes."

"She's gutsy, I'll give her that."

Leah calls out, "Damn straight! My girl is tough as nails!"

Rose then reassures Jacob that neither she nor Emmett will know where the rest of their family go, nor will they have a way to contact them, as the Volturi might try to get to the rest of the family through them.

After hanging up, Jacob informs his father of the situation. Billy appears concerned, but as of yet, it is not clear how this might affect the wolves. His father surprises him with his response. "I'm not sure it's the smart decision, but I admire that she has finally decided to do something useful with herself. The doctor and his wife have to be worried about her. You should let them know that your pack will watch out for her."

Jacob looks at his father. This is his inclination as well, but he wasn't sure that the council would have any interest in protecting a vampire. Even one so close to the pack. "I wasn't sure you'd feel that way."

"After what she did for you? Helping Seth when Edward broke his back, flying in to take care of Leah, putting herself on the line when those Italians came to ruin everything? You'd better help her if she needs you."

"Agreed," he smiles.

"And you should tell the doctor about what you saw. The star inside him. He'll want to know. I'm sure if it. And if they're going into hiding, who knows when you'll speak with them again?"

"You're right. They should still be in their house for now." Jacob picks up the phone again and dials.

"Hello?" Esme answers.

"Hi. It's Jacob Black."

"Of course. Hello, Jacob. Is everything all right?"

"I should be asking you, I think. Bella told me you're leaving. I wanted to wish you luck, and I was hoping to talk to the doctor before you go."

"Certainly. He's right here."

Carlisle takes the phone. "I'm glad you called when you did, Jacob. We won't be at this number for much longer."

"It's that urgent?"

"Aro is sending Alec and Demetri. The boy is probably the most deadly weapon he has left due to his ability to render his prey senseless, and with their best tracker on his way, there is no time to lose. Alice sees that if we leave tonight, we have a chance. It means I can't even give two weeks' notice at work. I don't know who will cover my shift tomorrow. But there is nothing else to do."

"I'm sorry," Jacob answers sincerely. "I won't ask where you're going. It doesn't sound safe for you if anyone knows."

"You're right. We will disappear as best we can. I am only worried about Rosalie and Emmett. Esme is beside herself with worry, and Alice cannot guarantee a good outcome. There are massive blank spots in her visions."

"That's because of us, I suspect. She has become close with Leah, and Alice won't be able to see her if they continue to spend so much time together. But if it comes to it, my pack will do what we can if she needs us."

Carlisle heaves a heavy sigh of relief. "I had hoped, although I did not want to overstep my bounds to ask. She is a stubborn girl, but she has a good heart. I'm so proud of her for trying to make something of herself. The timing is just terrible, that's all. I would have her defer, wait until later to return to her training, but she will have none of it. And I can't blame her for not wanting a life lived in fear. They will interrogate her, of that I am sure. But Aro has kept his power for this long by being smart, not cruel. I do hope that her ignorance of our whereabouts will protect her. I hope your assistance will not be needed."

"Me too," Jacob responds. "But that isn't the only reason I called. There is something else I wanted you to know."

"Yes?"

"You remember that I can spirit walk? Like my ancestors. I can send my spirit out of my body to travel far."

"Yes. It's fascinating. I wish we had more time to discuss it."

"Right. I'll make this as quick as I can. I know you're in a rush. The thing is, when I'm in spirit form, I can see the life force inside any living thing. I'm not sure what to call it exactly. I think of it as a soul for a lack of a better term. It isn't the spirit, not exactly. My brothers and I send out spirits out of our bodies, and, well, I guess we look like you'd imagine a ghost to be. The soul, or life force, or whatever you want to call it, it looks like a star. Like light. Every living thing has one. Plants are mostly green flames, or sometimes deep orange reds. Almost brown. Animals look like comets or meteors. Humans look like stars. Miniature suns of all sizes, shapes, intensities. I've watched people die. The light inside them fades."

Carlisle listens intently. Jacob had previously heard him moving about, probably packing his things. But his actions have ceased. "I used to have this debate with Edward. He believed he had no soul. But I did not think that was true." He pauses, unsure whether he wants the truth.

"Most vampires don't. He was right on that account. Most vampires have a void. A black hole where a soul used to be. But not you."

"Me?" Carlisle's voice is very quiet. "What do I have?"

"Do you know about the different classes of stars?"

"I do," he breathes. "A bit of amateur astronomy. A good hobby for someone who needs no sleep."

"You look like one of the biggest, brightest stars. One of the most brilliant. A blue supergiant. It's almost blinding."

Carlisle says nothing for long moments. Jacob gives him time to absorb what he has just been told. "And my family?"

"They aren't black holes either. They look more like black dwarfs. Like the core of a star after it burns out. But not like other vampires. What's inside them? They suck the life out of everything around them. Suck the life out of living things. But your family is different. Not like you, but the core of who they were? It's still there." He deliberately avoids mentioning Edward. The wound is still quite raw for Carlisle.

Carlisle's voice breaks. He would probably cry if he still could. "Jacob? Thank you. Thank you for telling me this.

"That's not all. I think maybe you are the endpoint of what a vampire can become. What can happen if a vampire embraces the humanity they have left, if they give back instead of taking. Because Rose? She doesn't look like a black hole or a black dwarf or a star. She looks like a supernova. Every color in existence, every wavelength of light in the spectrum, it's coming out of her. Like an exploding star."

"That sounds beautiful." Jacob hears the smile in Carlisle's voice.

"It is. She is. But I think what it means is that she's on her way to being like you. Going in reverse. Redeeming herself. She's gaining back the life force, the soul, she once had. Her body, like yours, will never be alive again. But you have a human soul, Dr. Cullen. And someday, maybe she will too."

"I can't... I can't tell you what that means to me. To all of us."

In the background, he hears Esme say, "Thank you for telling us. It's amazing."

"When things settle down, I think we're going to have to take a good, hard look at the way we conduct ourselves. And now that we don't have the luxury of certainty, well, it makes every moment, every action, more meaningful, doesn't it?"

"Feel a little more mortal?"

Carlisle laughs. "Yes. It's petrifying. But in a way, that's a very good thing, I think."

"I think I probably need to let you go."

"Yes, although I can't remember the last time I wanted to continue a conversation more."

"Next time. It'll probably be a while."

"But we will try to get in touch if Alice finds out anything you need to know."

"I appreciate it."

"It's the least we can do, really. Thank you, Jacob. For watching over Rosalie, and for telling me what you did."

After hanging up, Jacob heads directly to Bella's house, bringing his father with him. Rather than spending an intimate evening with his girlfriend, he and Billy speak with Rosalie, Leah, and Bella together. After hearing Rose discuss her need to stay out in the open, to avoid running and hiding, Jacob and Billy both reassure her that she and Emmett will not be on their own. Leah looks at them approvingly before Jacob changes the subject and tells them what he told Carlisle. Rosalie is no less stunned than her father was, although she tries to hide just how much it means to her. Soon after, she leaves to pick Emmett up from the airport. Leah departs as well, as Sue is waiting for her at home.

After the other girls leave, Bella squeezes him around his waist and places a warm kiss on his palm. "You've grown," she smiles at him.

He looks down on the top of her head. "What, did I hit seven feet now and not notice?"

"Not that way, silly. I hope you don't grow any taller. I won't be able to reach you. No. I mean, who'd have thought you'd ever be friends with a vampire?"

"Hey, stranger things have happened."

"Not many," she teases. "But most of the stranger things that have happened have happened to you or to me."

"So much for a normal life, huh?"

He grins at her and tips her chin up so he can kiss her. "As long as you're in my life, I can take anything the universe can throw at me. As long as I've got you."

She stands on her tiptoes and wraps her arms around his neck. "Good thing I'm not going anywhere, then." Behind them, Billy looks studiously out the window, but he can't help but smile.

Charlie arrives home then, and Bella serves a stew that has been simmering all day long and tempting both Leah and Jacob with its aroma. Jacob polishes off four bowls and an entire loaf of bread, all the while playing footsie with Bella under the table.

Jacob and Billy leave immediately after dinner. They aren't surprised to find Jasmine awaiting Jacob at the treaty line upon their return. Jacob chides her for being visible from the road, but he manages to keep his temper in check. But when she smells Rosalie's scent on him and growls involuntarily, he tells her that she will need to get used to the smell, and she will need to be able to maintain enough control not to fight with the Cullens.

She responds by tucking her tail between her legs and crouching down in submission, peering up at his tall human form. Her puppy dog eyes are too much, as well as her cowering in front of him. He sighs and squats down. "You don't have to feel bad. Just be careful, okay?"

She rises, visibly perking up. He looks at her ruefully. If he didn't have to phase in with her and hear her obsessive thoughts of him, it wouldn't be so bad. Just as Bella used to be more comfortable around his animal form, finding it easier to look at him as a giant puppy than face the difficult truth that she loved him as much as he did her, Jacob thinks Jasmine would be easier to tolerate if she loved him with the simple, unconditional devotion of an animal. But there is nothing simple about her feelings for him.

Either way, he isn't ready to face the force of her imprint again, so he remains in human form. But he does feel bad for her, stuck in her animal body, frustrated and scared. So he walks further into the woods by her side. When they reach the clearing where she has been sleeping, he sits, leaning against a large oak tree. He knows she feels a desperate need to be close to him, and it must have taken all her restraint not to run after him when he went to Forks. He doesn't have anything to say, and even if she could speak with him right now, he doesn't think he would want to hear it. Instead, he lets the cool, light rain wash over him.

She curls up a few feet away, wanting to rest her head in his lap but knowing that it would not be welcomed. He looks up at the darkening sky. "It's gonna be okay, you know that, right? I know this isn't what you wanted. This part, right now, it's the hardest part. Before you can change back. You feel like you've lost control of absolutely everything. The world isn't the place you thought it was. You're not even who you thought you were, and neither are the people you know. And imprinting makes it even worse. But the person you were? She's not gone. She's somewhere in there. You just have to find her again. You'll find yourself. It'll just take some time. And then you'll be okay."

He can feel her eyes lock on him. He isn't comfortable enough to meet her gaze, so he scans the rain clouds as they pass overhead. He sits quietly with her for about an hour. Eventually, he stands. "I've got to help my dad. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

She nods her large head at him, and he walks away with no small sense of relief.

_When Bella comes to him that night, he greets her with an open heart and inviting arms. He knows it hasn't been long since they last parted, but for some reason, he can't stand that they were apart even for that short period of time. He peppers her face with kisses the instant she enters his bedroom, cupping her face in his large hands and bending over her. He nuzzles his nose against hers and whispers quietly, "I love you," over and over again without giving her a chance to speak. He feels from her tight grip on his arms that she needs to be as close to him as he does her. _

_He presses her up against the door to his room and lifts her up, as she instinctively wraps her legs around his waist. And then his lips are on hers, his tongue seeking entrance, his hot breath washing over her face. His kisses are soft but demanding all at once, his hands gripping her hips squeezing rhythmically. He needs her as badly as he ever had. He is hers, and he is compelled to show her. _

_She senses the intensity in his kisses, in his touch. His lips and hands transmit messages of passion, but she wants to hear them in his husky, low voice. When he finally releases her swollen lips, she murmurs, "It's okay. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." Then she weaves her fingers through his hair and brings his mouth back to hers. He kisses her until she is flushed and panting, and she finally places a hand on his chest. She has to slow him down before she becomes wholly overwhelmed by him and loses her focus. _

_"What? What is it, baby?"_

_"I want you to tell me what you want, Jake."_

_He groans, "You know what I want. I want you." And he leans in to nip at her lips. _

_She gives him a little shy smile. "No, I know that. I want you to talk to me."_

_He slowly gives her a seductive, happy smile, his eyes shining with amusement. Her smile. The one that only she knows how to draw from him. "Oh. You want me to tell you what I want? You want to know how I want to touch you? What you feel like? What I want to do to you?" His left hand slides up to her waist, under her shirt, and strokes her soft skin. _

_"Sort of," she answers with a blush, gripping his shoulders tightly. "I want you to tell me what you want me to do to you."_

_He grins at her and shifts his hips between her thighs. He knows just how aroused she becomes by his dominance and by the sound of his voice. "You want the Alpha? You want me to give you orders?"_

_She bites her bottom lip and stares at his mouth, wet with her kisses. "I'll do whatever you want," she breathes. _

_"Yeah? Are you going to be a good girl and do what I say?"_

_She bites her lip and shakes her head. "Not good, no. But I'll do what you say."_

_His eyes flash. "You're feeling naughty, huh?"_

_"For you," she whispers. "I'm yours, and I'll do anything you say."_

_"Mmm. I like the sound of that," he growls. _

_He gently lowers her to the floor and steps back, eyes raking up and down her body as he decides what to do with her. He licks his lips in anticipation. He can hardly decide where to start. He eyes her pajamas, a brown cotton camisole and short set with pink polka dots. They are just innocent enough that she can wear them around her father and not look suspicious. But to him, it is positively alluring. The cut bares the soft swell of her breasts, and the shorts are very short. She peeks at him with her wide brown eyes, nervously fisting her hands at her sides and crossing one ankle in front of the other. The movement draws attention to her legs. _

_His breathing grows heavy. He loves her legs, long, slim, and smooth. She must have used some kind of lotion before she came to bed. A flash of lightning illuminates her for a second, and her skin looks like it glows. His mouth turns dry, and he sounds raspy when he speaks. "Turn around." She does so, uncertain what he means, and faces the door. "Put your hands flat on the wood, Isabella. And spread your legs apart, just a step."_

_Her heart rate speeds up. Only the wolf, the Alpha, calls her Isabella. Making love with her Jacob is lovely and perfect, but the wolf's feral nature positively consumes her. She stares at the pattern in the grain and listens to him move behind her. She feels vulnerable, exposed. The position is not dissimilar to being frisked by a police officer. After a moment, she feels him directly behind her. He brushes her hair over her shoulder, exposing his mark on the back of her neck. It tingles as soon as he is near, but he does not touch it, not even when she tilts her head to give him better access._

_Instead of pressing his lips to her skin, he wraps his huge hands around her waist, quickly sliding under the fabric of her shirt. He strokes her delicate skin with his calloused hands softly. He slides his palms up, tantalizingly close to her sensitive breasts. But after a few delicious seconds of the energy radiating off his skin onto hers, his grip around her middle becomes possessive. At the same moment, he presses his entire body against the length of hers, and she feels his arousal pulsing into her lower back through the layers of their clothing. She rubs against him, but rather than causing a hitching breath or making him buck his hips, all she produces in him is a cocky smirk that she can't see. His breath stirs her hair gently as he chuckles. _

_Unexpectedly, he drops to his knees and runs his hands down her hips and along her legs, all the way down to her shapely calves. _

_"Jacob?" She wants more, and he knows it. But she handed him control when she told him she would do anything, and he plans to take advantage. _

_"Shh." He is only going to go as fast as he is willing. And right now he wants to savor her. Slowly, very slowly, he runs his hands slowly back up, his touch lifting until it is feathery light. He slowly draws the tip of his right index finger along the bottom hem of her shorts. Back and forth. Back and forth. She squirms closer, but he simply pulls away, laughing lightly. "You said you'd do anything I want, right?" He places a hot palm on her buttock and squeezes gently. _

_"Anything," she answers breathlessly. _

_He returns a single finger to the sensitive skin where her buttock meets her thigh, stroking again, barely touching her skin. With his other hand, he lifts the back of her camisole, exposing the small of her back. He places a single, scalding kiss there. "Then I want you to wait."_

_And he stands back, leaving her alone. She doesn't turn around to look at him. He hasn't said so, but she understands implicitly that she is only supposed to move if he asks her to. So she awaits his instructions. _

_It takes longer than she is comfortable with. She feels his stare. Eventually he tells her, "Take your bottoms off. Slowly."_

_She takes a single step back from the door and leans over, pushing her ass toward him. Keeping her knees locked, she hooks her thumbs in her waistband and pushes down, gradually revealing the small boyshort panties she wears underneath. They are made of pink lace. This time, his breath does catch as he looks at her, unable to tear his eyes away from her pretty, round behind as she kicks away her shorts._

_"What now?" she whispers._

_"Just, just hold still for a second. I want to look at you." Now he sounds like her Jacob, not like her wolf._

_She grips her own ankles just to have somewhere to put her hands, holding herself in position to display her legs and ass. She feels her skin flush in response to him. Nervously, she chatters, "I feel like I'm missing a pair of strappy sandals or something. Seems like it'd, um, work with this outfit. If only I could walk in heels without breaking my neck."_

_From behind her, he answers, "Let's do that sometime. Get you a pair of stilettos. You won't need to walk in them, baby. You can just keep your legs around me as I fuck you while you're wearing nothing else." She trembles with arousal at his words. She wants it. As soon as possible. He sees her tremor and barely resists the urge to slip her underwear aside and ram himself deep inside her body as she bends over. His Alpha voice returns. "Isabella, stand up now. Turn around. I want to see you."_

_She does so, seeing pure lust on his face and a huge bulge in his shorts, pointed down along his thigh. "I want to see you too," she admits. _

_"Then you can look," he nods. "Come undress me." She steps forward and reaches out to unbutton his fly. "No. Kneel," he commands her. His voice is low but hard._

_She smiles, lowering herself at his feet, and licks her lips as she slowly exposes him. He is already rock hard, and upon release from his clothing bobs toward her. She immediately reaches out her hand, but he stops her with a firm, "No." She looks up at him in surprise. "I said you could look. Not that you could touch. Finish undressing me."_

_She squeezes her knees together to try to put pressure on the need between her legs. "Sorry," she whispers. "I'll do what you say." Then she is careful to only touch the fabric of his shorts as she works them down and off his legs. When they are gone, she stares hungrily at the drop of clear fluid at the tip of his penis. Her eyelashes flutter as she glances up at him. "Can I taste you?"_

_One corner of his mouth turns up. "Since you asked nicely. Just one lick."_

_She is careful to comply, but she draws it out as long as possible while obeying his order. She smiles at him and snakes her tongue out to start at the base, run all the way up his shaft and over his crown and catching the salty liquid, taking care to slowly run her small tongue over the head of his cock. He tastes good, and she is especially satisfied when his dick twitches at the single contact. Then she sits back on her knees._

_"Good girl," he murmurs, gently stroking her hair. Jacob steps back and examines her submissive posture. She has her hands folded in her lap. Her breathing is rapid despite the lack of physical exertion, and he can see her nipples pressing against her camisole. "Now I want to see your pretty breasts. Lower one of those straps."_

_"Like this?" She pushes the left strap down her arm. It exposes the soft swell of flesh, but not her nipple. He needs to see it._

_"Yes. Now the other. Slide them off your arms."_

_And then the garment is bunched around her waist, and her chest is fully exposed to the air. His power, the presence of his muscular body, the intensity of his gaze on her all combine to produce a pink blush to her skin, and the slight chill in the air and the friction of the fabric render the tips of her breasts pebbled and erect. "Is this okay?" _

_"Stand up," he answers. He has to taste her._

_So as soon as she rises to her feet, he has his left arm wrapped around her waist, his left sliding down to squeeze her ass, tugging her up by her thigh. Walking forward, he lifts her off the floor, shoves her high against the door, and draws her left breast into his mouth. Humming in satisfaction, he suckles at her as she groans and thumps her head back against the door. "Oh god, Jacob!" The electric sensation ricochets between her breast and her sex pressed against his taut abdomen, and she swivels her hips to produce friction on her clitoris. He never thought his stomach was particularly sensitive, but the slightly rough sensation of the lace combined with her wetness seeping through to his skin drives him wild. _

_But he is patient. He spends endless minutes lavishing attention on her breasts, the mark he left on her chest, and her sensitive nipples, alternating between them. They both know she can climax from this attention alone, but he refuses to stay in one place long enough to draw her high enough. She whimpers, gripping him by his hair and trying futilely to keep him in one place, and begs, "Please, please."_

_But instead, he abruptly sets her back on her feet and shakes his head. "I want you wet for me."_

_"I am. I already am."_

_He knows. He can smell it. If he were to slide his cock in right now, he would meet with no resistance. Just slick heat. "Not enough. I want you dripping," he growls. _

_She sniffs in disappointment. "Then touch me. I'm already aching for you," she whispers. She isn't exaggerating. Her whole body tingles with want, and her sex throbs. She wants to be filled._

_He grins at her ferally. "Why don't you get started? Touch yourself."_

_She bites her lip and reaches down to lower her panties. "How? Where do you want me?"_

_He shakes his head. "Not like that. Keep them on. You can sit there," he points._

_She nods and crawls onto the bed, wiggling her lovely lace-clad ass at him playfully before she turns to sit against the pillows. She bends one knee up, curling her arm around it, and leaves the other extended toward him. "Here? Is this where you want me?"_

_"Yes. You can take the top off now." His pupils are dilated and fixed on her as she lifts the camisole the rest of the way off, sweeping her hair up. It lands around her shoulders in disarray. "Slide your hand under your panties."_

_She tilts her knees open and eagerly obeys, her fingers immediately finding her swollen clitoris. "Ohhhhhh," she breathes as she moves her fingers in satisfying circles. His cock throbs for her as he watches. She tosses her head back, exposing her long neck and inadvertently pushing her breasts toward him. _

_"Play with your tits with your other hand," he orders firmly._

_She smiles and starts squeezing her own soft flesh. She loses herself in pleasure, pulling tightly at her eager nipples. She starts to pant. She would rather have his hands on her, but the effect she has on him makes her powerful and voluptuous. And she loves the hard look on his face. His jaw is tight and he clenches his fists to keep from reaching out for her. He wants to bury himself in her, but the sight of her pleasuring herself on his bed is an adolescent fantasy come true. _

_Because it is true, and because she knows her voice has the same effect on him that his does on her, she moans, "It feels so good. But not as good as you do."_

_"Then slide that finger down into your pussy, Isabella. Stroke yourself like I would."_

_She is slightly restricted by her underwear, but she gladly does so as best as she can. Her back arches further, as she massages her own inner walls with a single, slim finger. She presses the heel of her hand firmly against her clitoris. "Jake, oh, Jacob." Her words are broken breaths. "I want... I want..."_

_"I want you too, Bella. You're so beautiful." His voice is so low she can barely hear him. "Add a second finger."_

_She hums and reaches inside herself as far as she can go with her index and middle fingers, and then she starts to tries to pump her hand. But her panties are in her way. "Please? I need more."_

_"Just a little. Just for now." He stalks toward her, kneeling between her legs with his hands on his hips. She can't take her eyes off his cock. She wants it so badly. But all he does is lean forward to draw her panties off her. She lifts her hips to help him, then he tosses them over his shoulder. "Okay," he nods. "Fuck yourself with your hand, Isabella. Show me."_

_She drops her head back again and closes her eyes, moaning and pumping her fingers in, curling them as she desperately tries to reach for her g-spot. But she can never seem to draw the same responses from her body that he can. She wriggles her hips and strains her arm and wants his hands on her. _

_But when she hears him shift, her eyes pop open to find him stroking himself firmly as he stares at her, eyes flicking up and down her body. "Damn," she whispers, pausing involuntarily as he watches him. His bicep flexes as he moves his hand up and down along his enormous shaft. The smooth ridges of his rectus abdominis muscles are clearly defined, and a stray ray of moonlight breaks through the rain clouds to illuminate him for a few seconds. Every few strokes, he flicks his palm over the bulbous head, spreading precum down to lubricate his movements. He is breathtaking._

_When she finally tears his eyes away from his hand and his cock, she sees him smirking at her. "Did I say you could stop, naughty girl?" She shakes her head._

_And she resumes curling her fingers in her body. She is torn between wanting to watch him stroke himself to completion and wanting to push him back and climb on his cock. But he is in control, and the decision is not hers to make. So she enjoys the sensation of her own hands rubbing and massaging her flesh. And better yet, she relishes the picture of the perfect specimen of her lover masturbating over her. _

_It doesn't take long for her to near climax. She is writhing on her own hand, dripping and soaking the sheets just as he had asked, about to fall off the edge of the cliff when Jacob interrupts her. "Don't come yet. I'm the only one who gets to make you come."_

_She admits a small keening sound of protest, but removes her hands and fists the sheets at her sides. He releases his length at the same moment. "I can't wait any longer," she begs. "Then make me come, Jacob. Please make me come."_

_He crawls up the length of her body, hovering over her without actually making contact with a single point on her skin. He leans down to whisper in her ear, stirring the hair on her neck and causing tiny ripples of pleasure to wash down over her. "Do you want me to touch you?"_

_"Yes, yes. Please!"_

_He rests his weight on his left arm, planted on the wall by her head. "Like this? My hands on you?" He lightly runs his fingers down her chest, over the swell of her breast, avoiding the nipple, spreading his fingers over her belly, and resting on her hip. Sparks fly at every point of contact. _

_"Your hands... Jake...more..." She is barely coherent, trembling with need below him. She presses up toward him, but he backs away, just out of reach except for the hot hand on her waist. Somehow he manages to stay a few tantalizing millimeters away no matter how she squirms. _

_He finally pushes her down into the mattress with a firm grip of the hand on her waist. He leans back down to whisper in her ear again. "More? How do you want it? My naughty girl. I'll give you what you want. Just tell me."_

_"Please!" she blurts out and grabs him by his shoulders. "I want to come!"_

_He laughs seductively over her, but keeps her pinned in place. "How? Tell me. I want to hear filthy words from those sweet, sexy lips of yours."_

_She squeezes her eyes shut, blushing furiously, and rakes her nails down his chest and around his waist. He shivers and growls low in his throat in response. She whispers, "I want your cock. Fill me up, Jacob, Fill me up and make me come."_

_He growls then, low in his throat, as he grabs her knee and drags her flat onto her back. He hitches her leg around his waist, and he plunges into her aching cunt. She spasms around him. "Ah, ah, yessss... Ja... Ohhh." She burns as he stretches her, and he doesn't move. He throbs inside her. "Hmmm," she hums. "God." She wants to tell him how good he feels, but she can't find the words._

_"Is that what you want?" his voice rumbles._

_"More, please." She needs friction. She needs him deeper. She needs him to move._

_He does move, but he surprises her by grabbing both hips and flipping over without drawing out of her. She finds herself draped over his body. He pulses and thrusts once, groaning, yanking her ass onto him. She looks at him and sees a passing second of blissful agony on his face before he relaxes into the pillows. He looks up at her with his cocky smirk and reaches back to link his hands behind his head, appearing as relaxed as can be. "Use me," he whispers. "Use my body to make yourself feel good."_

_She sits up on him, and even that small movement feels amazing due to his massive size inside her. He is hot and hard, velvet on steel, and his body can pleasure her like nothing else. She places her hands on his pectorals for leverage, rises up just a couple inches, and sinks down. "Ooohhh," she breathes. "Jacob." Her speech breaks on his name._

_He grins up at her as she starts to work herself on him. Her breasts bounce with each movement, and she feels heat on her skin where he looks at her. He holds himself still, letting her do the work. He is so big that it takes her several minutes of shallow movements before she is ready to take him deeper. When her thighs begin to burn, she switches from riding him to grinding in circles, then shifting her hips to and fro over him. She shoves her clitoris down onto his pubic bone and moans. "Yeah. That's it," he whispers. "Use me."_

_She starts to tremble. Her body shines with a thin layer of perspiration. He thinks she looks stunning, bouncing on him, grinding against him, hips twisting, breasts shaking. He reaches up to cup her left breast gently in his hand, and he gives her the sexy smile that she loves. "God... god..." she pants, then whimpers when he twists her nipple lightly, sending another electric jolt between her breasts and her pussy. She slides up and down over and over, trying to find that perfect angle, the right depth. _

_He reaches up and barely strokes the mark on her breast, then trails both hands over her flat belly to rest on her hips. He squeezes them, digging his fingers into her flesh, and he feels her start to contract more tightly around him. "That's it. That's it," he murmurs. "Work me. Ride me." He whispers, but even the low volume can't hide the command in his tone. She shakes over him. She braces herself with her arms against him, nails digging into his skin deliciously, involuntarily squeezing her breasts together. He groans at the sight. _

_Finally he cannot stay still. He bends his knees and braces his feet against the bed. She is just too much. Too good. Too soft. Too warm. Too wet. Too tempting. He starts to buck his hips up to meet her, grunting softly. His movements are just what she needs. He starts stroking against the spot that makes her insane, and her eyes grow glassy with pleasure. He can't hold back a full throated moan any longer. "Make yourself come, Isabella. Make yourself come all over my dick."_

_She slides up and almost off him, then slams herself down as he lifts his hips off the bed. The huge head of his cock jolts against her cervix. It pushes her over the edge. She throws her head back, arching her breasts toward him. Her long hair tickles his thighs. And she climaxes over him, hard, crying out her rapture. Her body twitches, taut, her already tight cunt locking down him like she isn't ever going to let go._

_He holds himself completely still, but for his throbbing length buried all the way inside her. He grits his teeth as she milks him. He gasps, "Fuck. Yes. Unh. Unh. Yes! Soak me. Unhhhh." He is torn between looking at her gorgeous form shaking ecstatically on him and closing his eyes to keep from falling over the edge as well. He wants to pound into her when he comes. He struggles against his own orgasm, and he wins. Barely._

_When she comes down from her high, she realizes she is wrapped around him like a blanket. He is still hot and hard inside her, and the fingers of one of his large hands gently stroke up and down her spine, the other buried in her hair. Her cheek rests on his broad chest. "Feel better?" he asks, amusement in his voice. But his words are strained. He is too aroused to be relaxed._

_"Mmmm. Yes. That was wonderful," she purrs. Then she clenches her walls around him and laughs low in her chest when he groans. _

_"Tease," he complains, not seriously. The wolf has faded from his voice._

_She picks up her head to look at him. She cocks a brow. "I don't think you know what that means if you say it when I'm wrapped around you like a glove."_

_He retorts, "I don't think you know how guys wear gloves if you think where you are right now has anything to do with gloves."_

_She giggles, "There's a hilarious mental picture," and the sensation of her vibrations surrounding his stiff member almost make him lose control. He grabs at her hair, tilting her head back, and crashes his lips against her while he twitches inside her. It is just a little too rough. And she loves it, so she whimpers into his mouth. But she is startled when, instead of rolling over and thrusting into her, he grasps her hips and pushes her off him. "What is it?" she asks, confused. _

_"I'm not done telling you what I want you to do, Bella." He guides her down his body. _

_She understands instantly. "Mmm. You want my mouth on you?"_

_He nods, relaxing back into the pillow. "Yeah. Lick it. Kiss it. I want to see your red lips on me. You look so pretty sucking my dick."_

_She immediately gets aroused again, and she licks her lips in anticipation. She bends over him, grasping the thick base in her hand. It slides easily since he is still coated by her fluids. Her fingers don't quite come together as she strokes him up and down. _

_"Nuh uh," he stops her. "I want your mouth. Your tongue."_

_She smiles, leans down, and takes a long lick up the length of him. "You taste like me," she whispers. "I like it."_

_"You taste good, baby. And you taste better on me."_

_She answers by lapping every last drop of herself off him like a cat with a bowl of cream. She rediscovers all his most sensitive spots, paying them extra care and attention. He loves the tiny, intimate gestures almost as much as he loves it when she takes him so far he hits the back of her throat. He sighs and holds her hair away from her face so he can see her better and finds that he was right. She is very, very pretty, even more so than usual. _

_Eventually she tires of teasing him and lowers her mouth to envelop the thick head, relaxing her jaw open to accommodate his girth. She laves her tongue back and forth over him, and he tightens his grip in her hair and lets out a strangled moan. He only allows her to use her mouth for another minute; if she continues, he won't make it back into her pussy. And he wants to come deep inside her. _

_So he reaches down for her, grasping her around her ribcage and tugging her up. He rolls her gently underneath him and kisses her again and again, his tongue hot and demanding, his lips soft and passionate, his arousal heavy against her thigh. He kisses her until she is just as ready for him to take her as she was when they started. _

_He shifts so that he lies between her legs, and he drags his length along her sensitive clitoris. She moans and grasps at his ass, trying to pull him closer. _

_"You like that?" he whispers._

_"Mmm. Yes. But I want more."_

_"You want my cock in you?"_

_"Yes. Deep inside." Her wide eyes look innocent in contrast to the intent of her words. Her nervous expression, slim waist, lithe form, still-developing breasts, they all make her look even younger than she is. She is a true beauty, and she is spread out beneath him._

_He smiles again, and he looks positively predatory. "You're such a naughty girl. I can do that."_

_He rises up on his knees and grabs her roughly, flipping her onto all fours. She steadies herself on the pillow beneath her. She loves this position, and he can get absurdly deep. In fact, he can barely fit himself all the way inside her, but somehow they always manage. He spreads her legs slightly apart with his knees, pushes her back into an arch, and takes himself in one fist while pulling her hip with the other. And he guides himself all the way inside her. _

_She moans into the pillow, long and low. "Jaaake..." He is huge, and even after an orgasm around him just minutes before, she burns with his entrance. She loves it._

_"Is this what you wanted?" He slides slowly out._

_"Yessss," she sighs and rocks backward to impale herself on him._

_He chuckles in happy surprise. "Eager, are we?"_

_She clenches around him and nods, whispering another quiet, "Yes. I want you."_

_"You have me." And he begins to pump. He swirls his thumbs in the dimples of her lower back, gently pressing and massaging. But soon enough he picks up speed, and he cannot concentrate enough on the delicate motion. She is just too tight, too wet, too hot, and too desperate. _

_And then nothing about this is delicate, which is good, because she doesn't want tender, gentle caresses right now. His angle is perfect to massage his length against her g-spot with every stroke. Of course, he is so big that any position stimulates it, but she loves a firm touch, and this is firm, to say the very least. He moves even faster._

_It doesn't take long for him to be right on the edge. If he had allowed himself, he could have come all over her pajamas the first time he kissed her against his door, she is so alluring. And she is just as turned on as he. She is ready for another orgasm, and this position primes her for it._

_"More," she begs in between thrusts, moaning into the pillow. "Please... unhhh... Ja...cob... nnnn... unhhhh... More!"_

_He knows what she wants. He wraps her hair in one fist, pulling her up and toward him, braces her shoulder with the other, and begins jackknifing into her in earnest. She starts making nameless sounds that drive him to the brink of insanity, and her pussy starts to flutter with the unmistakable pattern of an oncoming orgasm._

_But he wants to see her face when she comes again. So he pulls out abruptly. She whimpers from the loss, but soon she is flat on her back and he is sitting between her legs. He yanks her buttocks toward him so they rest on his thighs, and she locks her legs around him. But before he enters her again, he wraps his hand around her throat. He doesn't squeeze, he doesn't cut off her airway. But the gesture leaves no question who is in control here. If he wanted to, he could crush her windpipe in a second, and she there is no way she could stop him._

_That is the very last thing he would do. They both know it. He does it to display his dominance, but moreover, because it drives her mad with lust. She fists the sheets beneath her as he grasps her hip with his free hand and pulls her onto his waiting cock._

_And then he fucks her hard and slow. "You want it?" he growls in between firm thrusts. _

_"Yes," she moans and grabs the arm extended to her throat with her right hand. _

_"You like it when I fuck you?" He pounds into her again, then stills._

_"God, Jacob. Yes!" _

_He grins, pulls out, and slams home again. "Tight. Unhhhh. So tight."_

_She squirms beneath him, trying to twist her hips to press her clitoris against his pelvis. "Please," she begs._

_"Tell me what you want," he demands, then gives her a few more firm, slow thrusts. _

_"Ohhh... Mmmm... Unhhhh..." she has forgotten how to talk. But he won't give her what she really wants until she asks._

_He pulls almost all the way out, staring at her body. Her skin glistens with perspiration. She shakes with need. Her nipples are tight and peaked. Her stomach is flat and taut. Her eyes are glassy, and her sweet, swollen lips are open as she pants. He looks at the tip of his cock parting her pink labia. "Your pussy is perfect, Isabella. Your body is perfect," he whispers. And then he thrusts back in and holds still. "Tell me, and I'll give it to you. I'll give you what you need."_

_She raises her left hand to join her right in desperately gripping his forearm where he grabs her throat. She wants a tighter grip, and he obliges, very slightly. He refuses to compromise her breathing or leave a bruise, but he knows how to satisfy her. She looks him right in the eye and pants, "Fuck me, Jacob. Hard and fast. I'm yours. Take me."_

_He grins and complies, and she starts to spasm around him. He keeps one hand around her neck, the other on her hip, and he yanks her onto him as he drives his huge cock deep into her aching cunt. _

_She goes wild. She screams as he pounds her. Her back arches fully off the bed. Her head tilts back so far she sees the headboard behind her before she loses the ability to keep her eyes open. Wave after wave after wave of climax puts her body into convulsions. She comes apart all around him, under him, surrounding him, enveloped by lust and overpowered by him._

_Her orgasm won't end. He doesn't allow it. He fucks her over and and over until she is on the verge of losing consciousness. He cannot hold out any longer, and there is no reason to do so. He rocks forward and releases her throat, sliding under her to grasp the back of her skull. His heavy torso pushes down against her soft breasts, and he wraps his other arm around her and under her waist. He smothers his face in her neck, buries himself as far as he can go into her wet heat, and he releases himself into her welcoming body in hot streams, gasping into her skin as he listens to her shaking cries. He comes so hard that he sees stars, and her orgasm doesn't end until his does._

_Minutes later, he rolls over, but he cradles her as he moves so that he doesn't leave her body. She snuggles onto him like a giant pillow. He murmurs, "I love you," into her hair only seconds before she falls fast asleep._

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: As always, thanks to my beta, Babs81410. This story will be on hiatus while I'm away from the internet, but will return in approximately two weeks.


	28. Chapter 27

X-x-x-x-X  
March 26  
X-x-x-x-X

Jacob is on patrol with Sam on Wednesday. Sam is running a tight loop through the reservation with Jasmine, while Jacob takes a much broader swath east to encompass the Olympic National Park to ensure that Embry and Seth, still on their spirit quest, are protected. Through the morning, Jasmine remains asleep in the clearing near Jacob's home. Quil had taken her for a run along Puget Sound the night before to keep her from waking Jacob in his sleep, and she had only fallen asleep an hour before dawn. She wakes at noon, quietly listening to her brothers' thoughts.

Emily had shown up at Sam's mother's home the day before and asked him to return to their house. She must have gone straight from the community center, where she spoke with Billy, to find Sam. The moment she came into view, the pain in his chest ceased. His anger with her, which until then had been at the forefront of his mind, was submerged by the influence of the imprint. He had been fighting the tugging in his gut that had called him back to her, but without Leah to cling to, he was unable to find the motivation to turn her away.

Jared had immediately offered to take his nighttime patrol, and he had slept in his bed with Emily for the first time in over a week. It was the longest he had gone without seeing her since she first agreed to be with him, and it had taken its toll. Subconsciously, he knew it only hurt so badly because she wanted him to come home. He sensed somehow that if she had freed him as Rachel freed Paul, that the deep ache in his chest would not be nearly so strong. But she had not. The longer he was gone, the more she missed him. Her feelings for him ran too deep. And after Leah had told her that she planned to move to Seattle, hope flared that she would be able to have her Sam back, heart and soul. Leah had not asked him to return to her, just the opposite in fact, and Sam himself was unable to find the words to ask to be freed. They were there, but they were silenced by the imprint.

He thinks that if Leah had accepted him back, if she had allowed him to lose himself in the pleasures of her body and the warmth of her love to counter the pain of the resisted imprint, perhaps he would be able to stay away. But it is too late for that. If he had never left her in the first place, it would be different. Or if he had not asked Emily to marry him, perhaps what they had could be repaired. Even after that, he knew she still loved him. When she first phased and her father died, if he had wrapped her back into his arms and spoken words of love and comfort instead of pity, guilt, and isolation, she would have taken him back. Even then.

But no more. And without her to fight for, how can he battle his imprint? Unlike Jacob's wolf, his wolf wants Emily and no other. Fighting the wolf is exhausting. And for what? In this form in particular, running through the woods on four strong, thick legs, he can barely remember why he wanted to fight. So he does not.

Here, now, as the wolf has taken over his form, as the man has retreated into the depths of his being, he thinks of home. And when he thinks of home, he thinks of her lovely, ruined face. His wolf is content. And if there is a small part of him, a buried part of his psyche, that despairs, it is too quiet to be heard above the imprint's din.

But Jacob can hear it. Perhaps because he knows it is there, perhaps because he wants it to be there, perhaps because he wants Jasmine to see it. He wants her to understand the cost of imprinting. The lives altered, the freedoms lost, the pain and confusion it leaves in its wake. But now is not the time. It is just too soon. She is still in the first, most desperate stage of the imprint, when the world outside her imprint's eyes is colorless, meaningless, and drab. Sam himself could tell her that imprinting was the worst thing that ever happened to him, and she would not even begin to comprehend what he meant. She wouldn't even be able to pay attention unless Jacob ordered her to.

She doesn't understand the complexity of what has happened to Sam, nor what is happening to her. She can barely feel the temperature of the air, sense the ground beneath her paws, see the forest around her. There is one vivid truth to her world, and it is him.

He tries to block out her thoughts, but they are too loud. Too overwhelming. He searches her open mind for the remnants of the person she once was. But all he finds are more memories of him. Comparing her to the other imprinted wolves, he realizes that hers seems even more intense than the others. Jasmine can barely remember a single other person. Sam was focused entirely on Emily, yes, but he at least thought of Leah to break up with her, and he remembered what it was like to love her even if it felt like the memories belonged to someone else. When Jared imprinted on Kim, every other woman fell away, but he at least recalled that he had once seen them. Paul could hardly stay away from Rachel, but he followed Jacob's advice to give her space. And Quil, although he felt an immediate and irresistible pull to Claire, never felt the level of physical pain that his brothers had while away from her.

So what are the differences? He suspects that Sam feels his imprint separation most acutely since Emily wants him close so very badly. Rachel, on the other hand, wants Paul to be able to be happy apart from her, so he has an easy time of it. Jared has never even tried to be apart from Kim, who had crushed on him for years. And Claire, although she loves her Uncle Quil, is happy as long as her parents are near, so doesn't pull him to her. So why does Jasmine want him so very badly? Is it just the newness of her imprint? Or is it something else?

Jacob tries to block these thoughts from her, but he is exhausted after the past few stressful days since she imprinted. He is unable to protect his mind completely, and she latches on to stray thoughts.

_Sam wants Emily because she wants him so badly, right? _she exclaims. _So that means that deep down, you must really want me too! _

_No, no. That isn't it! _he argues.

_It must be! You're in control here. If you wanted me not to feel this way, I wouldn't! If you wanted me to just love you like a sister, that's how I would feel. But I don't. So it means you really want me, even if you won't admit it!_

Sam breaks in_. This part is the most intense. It isn't always like this. The tugging in your gut? It won't ever go away, but it won't always be this strong. _He wants to say more, tell her to wait for the feeling to subside somewhat, tell her that the imprint makes lies into false truths, but the words flutter away like confetti before they can get past the imprint catching his throat.

_But it wasn't this strong for Quil, and it didn't even hurt Paul so badly to be away from Rachel. Even at first. He showed me, _she protests. _He wanted to be by Rachel, but he didn't need to sleep outside her house like I do. Mine's stronger than yours. It must be because of the way Jacob feels about me!_

_That's really not it, _Jacob growls_. Trust me. _He had been blocking his mind from her as best he could. He had not wanted to torment her with his memories of Bella, not while her control was so tenuous to begin with, not when she already hurt Bella and can't seem to even keep herself out of sight. And although his mental control has improved markedly after becoming Alpha, there is no way to entirely shield himself against the pack consciousness. So in his immense frustration, he allows her a glimpse of how he really feels about her, and Jasmine abruptly learns that she is his rejected imprint.

But instead of feeling dismayed at his wolf's renunciation of her, she is thrilled. She stops in her tracks. She knows he doesn't want to hear her, so she thinks to herself without actually trying to talk to him. Her thoughts are meant to be private, but she is still terrible at shielding them. _Oh my god! I'm his imprint? I'm his imprint! That's why I feel so strongly! It's because I'm really, truly his, and he's really mine!_

_No! I'm not! _he snarls. _You aren't paying attention. You're twisting this all around. My wolf rejected the imprint. I rejected it. I, we, are in love with Bella Swan. Always have been, always will be. There is no imprint from me to you because I severed it the moment I saw you. I don't want it, and I don't want you! _

But then Sam inadvertently recalls Jacob's first reaction to Jasmine's touch. Which prompts Jacob to recall each of the times his body responded to the simple contact of her skin against his.

_Oh! Oh! That's it! Then it's true! His body knows it. I'm his true mate. I'm the one he is meant to be with, not her. We belong together!_

Jacob is nothing short of dismayed. _We don't! You're only seeing what you want to see! I wanted to fucking rip your head off the first time we saw each other. I have to hold myself still to keep from hurting you. The desire, that's not aimed at you. It's aimed at Bella! She's the only one I want. She's my mate, my best friend, my lover, my everything. _And he finally lets her see. He gives her glimpses of his fierce coupling with his sweet girl in Sam's guest bedroom. _That is what I needed, what I wanted, what I had to have. _

And again, it backfires. A wave of lust washes over Jasmine. She immediately pictures pinned beneath Jacob instead of Bella.

Jacob reels under the force of her imprint-fueled desire. He is mortified. He stumbles on his paws and chokes out, _I've got to go. Sam, I'm getting out of here. You got this?_

_No, no, please, I'm sorry, _she pleads. _I shouldn't have said anything! I can't get used to all of my thoughts being broadcast like this. I didn't mean to say anything. Please stay!_

_Go, _Sam answers sadly. Jacob feels his sympathy for both of them. He knows how much Jacob loves Bella, not to mention how embarrassed he is. But he also remembers acutely exactly how Jasmine feels, although even his pull was not so strong. And he never had to contend with Emily being able to read his mind. The last thing Jacob hears before he disappears from the pack mind is Jasmine begging him to stay, but he can't get away fast enough.

He finds himself on his hands and knees on the forest floor. He has dirt on his hands and feet and twigs and leaves in his hair, but he doesn't care. He is relieved. He doesn't think he could have taken another second of that. He knows she doesn't have any control over what is happening to her, but he does think she could be handling it better. Why won't she listen to him when he tells her he doesn't want her? Why can't she seem to understand? It cannot be like Emily's reaction, her token attempts to get Sam to return to Leah which only masked her true desire for him. Despite his body's reaction to her, he knows himself. He knows what he wants. He isn't lying to himself when he says he loves Bella and no other. So why can't she let him be?

And then it hits him. His true feelings for Bella have overridden the instinct to imprint. And if Jasmine's imprint was in control of her emotions, she would want to be near him, but also want to fulfill whatever role he wished her to take. But he does not. It must be because her true feelings are only intensifying her imprint. She wanted him before she imprinted, unlike Jared, Sam, Paul, or Quil. Her true feelings were already for him. So it must be Jasmine the girl, not Jasmine the wolf, who doesn't want the truth.

He starts jogging. He was already close to the northern border of the park when he phased. He doesn't know how much time he will have before he is compelled to return home, but he will take what time he can. And he is close to his Bells.

Half an hour later he reaches the Peninsula College campus. He has been here before, but he has no idea what Bella's class schedule is. And he doesn't think he can march into the registrar's office clad in dirt, no shoes, and filthy shorts and expect to get an answer.

What he does get is attention. He had been garnering startled stares since he reached city limits, but most people assumed he was just jogging. Although anyone who payed attention stopped to wonder why he was running so very quickly and why he was so dirty and shoeless. He shrugs it off. It is the least of his worries.

He runs across Leah's scent first and follows it into a distinctive, modern brick and glass building. Now he really does attract all kinds of attention. He ignores all the double-takes, raised brows, and dropped jaws as he follows her trail. It ends in a classroom filled with students. He spies Leah through the plexiglass window in the door. She is staring at her professor and scribbling notes on her paper. He almost opens the door to ask for her when he remembers her acute hearing, so instead he just speaks her name at a normal volume. She joins him on the hall a few seconds later.

She looks worried. "What is it? What happened? Is everyone okay?"

And he realizes how bad this must look. She must think that something has happened to Seth or her mother. "Nothing happened, nothing. It's okay. Everybody's fine."

She narrows her eyes at him. "Bullshit. Why else would you be striding through Maier Hall half naked and covered in leaves?" She reaches out to pick debris out of his hair.

He places his hands on his hips and huffs in frustration. "I know, I know. I just need Bella, that's all."

She swats him in the arm, and unlike when Bella does this, it actually hurts. "Oh no you don't. Don't touch her! You'll tear her stitches, you horny perv!"

"Not for that!" he protests. "Seriously!" he adds when she tilts her head at him skeptically and places a hand on her cocked out hip.

"Why, then?"

"Jasmine's driving me nuts. She's decided that we're meant to be together. She figured out that my wolf rejected his own imprint on her, so she thinks the fact that I was supposed to imprint on her means we're meant to be. She keeps conveniently forgetting that I can't stand her. And then she got a glimpse of me and Bella together, and she started having this fantasy of her and me, and I just couldn't take it. I had to leave."

"Heh. Serves you right. At least I'm not the only one who has to contend with another pack member imagining you naked, or worse."

"Hey!" he protests. "I don't do that to you. Don't blame me!"

"Only because you like keeping your nuts attached to your body."

"Fine, whatever. Just, where's Bella? I want to see her before Jasmine, like, sprints here and rips up one of your professors or something."

She laughs and walks him to the main door, pointing out the library. "She'll be in there, probably."

"Thanks, Leah. Maybe I'll catch a ride home with you later."

"See you, Jake," she waves. "And remember. Don't pop her stitches!"

As he jogs off, he hears two students asking Leah what that was all about, and he hears a smooth lie fall from her lips. She explains that some friends of theirs had played a prank on him and left him locked out of his apartment naked, that he had borrowed a pair of shorts but needed to find his girlfriend so he could get a set of keys. It's a remarkably good cover story, and he fully plans to use it if anyone stops him.

Once he enters the library, it only takes him minutes to find Bella since her scent is fresh. She is seated at a table with books spread in front of her. But he doesn't notice the books. Instead, he zeroes in on the smarmy-looking man bent over her. He looks shockingly like Edward Cullen. Pale skin, tall, slim, wiry build, deliberately coiffed messy dark hair, eyes locked on Bella Swan with a hungry look. But even Edward had the good sense never to pop the collar of his polo shirt, nor did he think that a pair of skinny jeans had any place on a man.

Everyone else in the room is staring at Jacob except the creep hanging over Bella. She is trying her best to rebuff him. She is leaned so far away from him that she is almost sliding into the empty chair next to her. She answers, "No thanks, I have a boyfriend."

Jacob almost snorts aloud when the man, or boy, really, answers, "But he isn't here right now, baby, and what he doesn't know won't hurt him. C'mon. Just come have a cup of coffee with me. And we'll see where things go from there.•

Jacob calmly walks over and slides into the chair next to Bella, the same one she is halfway in already. "Actually, he is here right now. Nice to meet you. Jacob Black." He tosses one arm over Bella's shoulder and casually reaches his other hand out to the startled student, whose jaw drops open as he reflexively extends his hand back to Jacob, then winces visibly when Jacob nearly crushes his palm. "Oh, let me fix that for you." Jacob lets go of his hand only to fold down his collar. "Wind must've flipped that up. Can't have you walking around looking like douche, can we?"

The other student gawks at Jacob and stammers, "Uh, thanks?"

Bella tries to stifle a snicker as she turns to look at him, but her face falls when she sees the state he is in. "Uh oh, is everything okay?"

"Sure, sure. The guys played a little prank on me and locked my outside in my birthday suit. I think I might have given that little old lady who lives next door to us a heart attack, but she was nice enough to lend me her grandson's shorts. But you're the only other person with a key to our place, so here I am."

She grins at him. "I've got some time before my last class. I can come back with you instead of just giving you the key."

He kisses her on the cheek, resisting the urge to thrust his tongue down her throat in a possessive gesture. Everyone in the entire room already recognizes his status as the alpha male without any further macho displays. But he can't completely resist, so he stands to his full height, towering over the other man by a good six or seven inches and at least seventy pounds of muscle. The smaller man is a healthy six foot two and used to looking down on other people, but this time he blinks as he takes in Jacob's heavily muscled form as Jacob begins to gather Bella's books and papers. "You know, I really could go for a cup of coffee on the way, just like you mentioned. Walking around like this is a bit chilly. I bet it'd warm me up. Care to join us?" he grins ferally and gestures toward the door.

"No, no. I'm good." And he disappears.

Jacob can't hold back a laugh as he sits back down. Bella asks, "Was that entirely necessary?" But she does it with a flirtatious smile on her face.

"He didn't seem to be taking no for an answer. And we both know I actually took it really easy on him."

"He probably won't bother me again, I'm guessing."

"Not if he knows what's good for him! Has he hit on you before? Who was he?"

Bella shakes her head as she finishes packing her things. "Some guy who thinks he's a player. He's hit on Leah plenty of times. She shoots him down every time, but it doesn't stop him from trying. At first he just asked her out like a normal person. But the first time she saw him, he had a popped collar just like that, plus a fedora, and that was it. She turned him down and told me after that she wasn't going to touch him unless she had a good reason to punch him in the throat."

Jacob bursts out laughing and takes her bag, standing up to walk out with her. "Damn. I wish he gave her a reason to punch him. I'd pay to see that."

"That's not even the best part. A few weeks later he used the worst line on her that she had ever heard. And Leah gets hit on all the time, so that's saying something."

"What was it?"

"He said, 'Hey baby, you must be a light switch, 'cause every time I see you, you turn me on!' She said he was too stupid to hit. She sort of wished he had said something dirtier to give her an excuse to deck him."

"Aw, she's really just a softie. Or should I say, a puppy."

Bella smiles and links her arm with his as they exit the building. "She really likes that little girl, I think."

"How 'bout her dad?"

"It's early," she shrugs. "So it's hard to tell. But I think so, yeah. She deserves to be happy, Jake."

"She does," he agrees.

When they are out of range of any prying ears, Bella tugs him toward a free bench and finally asks him, "So what's up? I'm not complaining, obviously. You know I love to see you. But I know you aren't skipping out on patrol and running through my campus mostly naked just 'cause you missed me."'

Jacob slumps over and heaves a sigh, and Bella places what she hopes is a reassuring hand on his arm. "Jasmine's just driving me crazy. That's all. I had to get out of the pack mind for a bit."

"Did something happen? I mean, she's kind of been bugging you the whole time, so what's different now?"

Jacob looks at his feet and twists his fists together. "She sort of... she sort of figured out that I rejected my imprint of her. That my wolf did."

"Oh," Bella. "Um, is that a bad thing?" she asks tentatively. Perhaps if Jasmine knows that Jacob and his wolf are already in complete agreement as to their choice, she will leave them alone.

"Yeah. She didn't really interpret it the way I was hoping she should. Instead of backing off, she decided that it means we're really supposed to be together. I got pissed and let a picture of us slip through, you know, just to show her how I really feel about you." He won't look directly at Bella now, knowing he is probably embarrassing her. And indeed, her eyes grow wide and she blushes brightly at his pause when she realizes the sort of picture he refers to. "It should come as no surprise that that was a bad move. She replaced you with her in the picture, and I just had to get out. So here I am."

Bella frowns, fisting her hands such that her nails bite into her hands. She doesn't say anything, so eventually he works up the nerve to look over at her. She appears to be blinking back tears. Jacob immediately pushes her hair back from her face and tries to get her to look him in the eye. "Oh, baby. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you so much. I'll do better keeping my mental filter up in the future. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

She shakes her head rapidly as she squeezes her eyes shut. "No, no. That's not it. I mean, I'm not thrilled at the idea of all the guys getting pictures of us, of me, but I know it comes with the territory."

"So what is it?" he asks, bewildered. Is she that angry at Jasmine? He supposes it is certainly well within her rights to be.

"No," she answers in a small voice. "It's just, Jake, what if she's right?"

He still doesn't understand. "Right about what?"

"What if you guys are really supposed to be together, and I'm just getting in the way?" He tries to stop her, but she just keeps talking over his protests. "I mean, who am I? Some clumsy paleface girl who brings trouble wherever she goes."

He smiles involuntarily at the paleface comment and teases in response, "Hey, I love the way your skin looks pressed up against mine."

She doesn't even acknowledge him and keeps barrelling on despite the placating gestures he makes with his hands and attempts to shush her. "...Who tore out your heart and stomped on it. Who does nothing but lure in your worst enemies to threaten the lives of your brothers. Who makes you hurt when she hurts. Whereas she's as strong as you, or nearly so. She can defend herself and won't need saving all the time. When she sees a vampire she tries to kill it, not, you know, tempt it and try to make friends. She's sexy and gorgeous and isn't going to get old and wrinkly like I will and can phase with you forever."

"Hey, hey, hey." He finally presses his index finger to her lips, and she says the last few words indistinctly because of it. "I'm going to take those one by one, okay? First off, it was Edward who tricked you into everything, honey. I know that wasn't you, it was your fear that hurt us. And we took care of that, of him, right? And this girl, the one sitting in front of me," he slides the finger on her lips down to the middle of her chest, then flattens his palm against it while taking her hand and placing it on his own chest. "Her heart is my heart. Feel that? They're one heart. Not two. I'm yours, and you're mine, and I love you. Okay?"

"I love you too," she says softly.

He smiles gently at her. "And I don't want to live forever. You know that. I want one normal human lifespan. The way it's supposed to be. And I definitely don't want to spend it with her, I want to spend it with you. Besides. I've seen your mom, and if she's any indication of what you're going to look like in twenty years, well, she's hot and you probably will be too."

She sputters a surprised laugh, letting out her accumulated tension. "You perv," she teases.

He smiles at her smugly. "Your perv to match up with your kinks, honey." And after she finishes laughing again, he continues. "As for how physically strong she is, that really isn't a criteria I'm looking for in a woman. Indestructibility was not and never has been on my list of must-haves for a girl. And exploding into a giant furball with razor-sharp teeth and claws just isn't sexy, Bells. You can't tell me it is. Plus, I know you hate it, but I love your two left feet. It's cute."

"I happen to think your wolf is pretty damn sexy. But it is not attractive the way I trip over thin air!" she protests.

"It is," he chuckles at the glare she sends him. "It means you stumble around and give me chances to catch you. I love catching you, Bells." Then his face smooths into a serious expression. "It's human and normal and I really need more normal in my life. You make me feel like the person I thought I was. Just a boy in love with a girl ever since he can remember. Whereas she is, like, everything I despise about being a shifter. Loss of freedom, loss of free will, loss of your body and even your heart." She has to nod at that. Jacob has embraced his Alpha status, his fate and his responsibility, but he has never pretended that it is what he wanted for his life. Even though he is terribly good at it. He continues, "And yeah, it is a little annoying that I can feel it when you stub your toe, but the tradeoff of feeling every good sensation you feel? Ask any guy on earth. That's a deal any guy would make in a heartbeat. No questions asked."

When she sees him smiling at her again, she asks, "Why? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like it too. But it's not a good tradeoff, not the way I hurt myself all the time."

"Oh, it is so worth it," he insists. "Even the pain is good because it means I can come help you if you need it, and you don't even have to pick up a phone to call me. As for the other stuff? It just feels fucking amazing. The sex is mind blowing. And you can't tell me it doesn't, because I know, I really know, exactly how you feel. Even better than before, right?" She nods, because it is simply true. At her agreement, he presses on. "Right. So if you tell any guy that at the expense of a little occasional pain, he can pleasure his girl even better because he can feel what he's doing to her, plus the sensations themselves are just plain more, do you honestly think any guy would turn down that trade? Come on."

"Better than imprint sex?" she asks shyly.

"Way better! At least for the wolf. Think about it. Imprint sex means that the wolf has an increased sex drive toward the imprint, yes. But it also means that he has to do what the imprint wants. Which is great if she's a horny sex goddess, but if she just wants to cuddle all the time, or sleep or something, that's what he gets to do."

"Like Kim versus Emily?"

He blinks at her. "You know about that?"

She nods. "That's what Leah was telling us about when Jasmine came over. The pack's sex lives. Well, right before she told us about the girl she was with." When she notices Jacob's eyes about to pop out of his head, she stops abruptly. "Oh, shoot. I don't think I was supposed to say anything about that."

"Anything about what?'

Bella purses her lips and furrows her brow. "Uh, nothing?"

"Not nothing, what happened? You have to tell me, or else my imagination will run completely wild, and whatever I come up with will be worse. Then the guys will think something really raunchy, and she'll kill us both."

"Okay, but you can't tell any of the guys." He nods vigorously, although he doesn't think he'll be able to keep this from his brothers. "About a month ago, Leah was late to meet me to drive home. Remember? I was late and couldn't get back in time to make dinner?"

"Yeah, the night we went out to eat at the diner?"

"Right. So, well, she got held up. With a girl she knew from her study group."

"Held up?" he asks hopefully.

She looks at the cloudy sky. "Yeah. Like, when she finally found me, her hair was a complete mess and her lipstick was smeared and her clothes were askew."

Jacob leans in eagerly with wide eyes. "Leah fooled around with another girl?" Bella nods and bites her lip nervously. "Oh man! You're right, you shouldn't have told me. There's no way I'm going to be able to keep this to myself. But I'm going to go back to imagining you and her trying on lingerie." He starts to ramble and gets a glazed expression on his face. "You know, you in that red thing, or that black thing, or you helping her out of the strappy thing you told me about, or you and her in nothing..."

"Jacob!" she smacks him in the arm, careful not to hurt her hand. "You can't tell anyone! She's going to kill me if she knows I spread it around!"

He brings his focus back to her. "Or maybe she'll be happy we gave Sam another reason to regret letting her go."

Bella tilts her head. "Huh? What does that have to do with anything?"

He rolls his eyes. "Bells, you have to know this already. It's probably the number one most common male fantasy. A guy with two hot girls? Imprint or no, Emily or no, he's going to go nuts thinking that maybe if he was still with Leah, he could have gotten her into bed with another chick."

She narrows her eyes at Jacob. "Number one most common fantasy? I already know you fantasize about me and Leah together, which is sort of my fault, actually, after the lingerie thing I teased you with. But is that something you fantasize about? You and me and Leah together? You've said before that she's sexy."

He freezes with his mouth agape. "Uh, uh, well, uh..." Is there a correct answer to this question?

Bella had forgotten how much fun it is to tease Jacob like this. Too bad she is still too injured to have sex, not to mention that they're in the middle of campus with no real privacy. But it doesn't stop her from having enjoying herself. She leans in close enough that her lips brush his ear. "Do you think about how I'd touch her? Or her lips on me? I'll bet you do. And it's only going to seem more realistic now that you know she has been with a woman. But you also like to insert yourself into this fantasy. You imagine having us both at the same time. You do, don't you?"

"Erm..." is all he can come up with as he tries to discreetly tuck away the erection that is threatening to grow over the waistband of his shorts.

Until she leans back and laughs at him. "I'm just teasing you." He pouts and folds his arms in front of his chest. "Hey, you feel less frustrated now, right? Less angry?"

He frowns at her. "I'd say I'm just frustrated in a different way, Bells. It's been almost two weeks, remember? You must be trying to kill me."

"You can't die of blue balls, Jake," she grins at him. And then they both burst out laughing, drawing the attention of passersby once again, and he pulls her in for a gentle hug, resting his chin on top of her head.

"Aw, this is why I came. I knew you'd make me feel better. Worse," he gestures to his crotch as she giggles, "but overall, better."

He tucks her under his arm to ward away the spring chill, and she snuggles against him. "Good enough to talk more? I promise, I won't interrupt with more insecurities."

He sighs. "Ugh. Yeah. I guess I am. I think I figured out why she's so stuck on me."

"Well, she did imprint, Jake."

"Yeah, but the truth is, hers is probably the most intense. I mean, the first few days, first few weeks, are really ridiculous for all the imprinted wolves. Remember how I told you it was like gravity? This unstoppable force, not exactly like love at first sight, but this crazy pull?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, hers is even worse. Quil, for instance, was never as bad off as the others. He's never lived right next to Claire. He needs to see her regularly, but he's always been okay for at least a few days in between. Even in the beginning. Jared looked at Kim and never looked away, but when she takes a vacation with her family, he misses her, but he doesn't think he's going to die or anything. Even Paul, who wanted to sleep in the woods outside our house right after he imprinted, he went home when I told him he was freaking Rachel out. He didn't like it, but he did it. And Sam kept going back to Emily, even when she told him to go away. But he left her alone some of the time in between."

"Plus she didn't really want him to go away, so really, he was just doing what she actually wanted, which was different than what she said."

"Right, yeah. Exactly. So that's part of the problem. She thinks that she wants me as badly as she does because she thinks that deep down, it's because I really want her. But I figured out it's just the opposite. None of the guys had any real feelings for their imprints before they phased. But she had that big crush on me, right?"

Understanding dawns on Bella. "Oh. So hers is the strongest because not only is her wolf obsessed with you, but she is too!"

"Exactly. And I'm going to beat the shit out of Sam, too, because he let on about my, you know, physical reaction to having her touch me." Bella stiffens under his arm, but says nothing. He knows she hates what happens to him, as does he, but he isn't going to lie to her, even if it is to protect her feelings. "So she decided I must really want her even though I just don't."

Very quietly, Bella asks, "Have you?"

"Huh? Have I what?"

"Touched her? Since she phased?"

"Oh. No. Unless you count nearly killing her Saturday night."

She picks her head up and looks at him. "So what happened then?"

Jacob suddenly gets a bright and surprised expression on his face. "Oh my gosh, you're right, Bells! You're right!"

"Right about what?"

"It's gone! I think it's gone! That stupid, involuntary hard-on. I knocked her over, pinned her down. I had my paws all over her and was this close to ripping her carotid artery right out of her damn neck!" He illustrates with two fingers pinched nearly together. "And nothing! No lust, not even for you. Just fury. It's gone! Although I still sort of want to kill her."

Slowly, they start grinning at each other. She jokes, "I never thought I'd be excited that you didn't want to jump my bones, but yeah. I'm fine with you not being turned on. Although I should probably thank her for all the amazing things you did to me those times it happened. Maybe I'll actually miss it."

He waggles his eyebrows at her. "Oh, don't you worry. As soon as you're healed, I'm going to show you just how much I want you."

She blushes and can't meet his eyes any more. She lowers her voice. "But I kind of liked the way you dominated me."

And suddenly the spark of lust is back in his gaze. He drops his voice down to a husky register. "When I ordered you around? Told you what to do? Or when I tied you up and had my way with you? Held you where I wanted to, right here?" He reaches out to delicately run one finger along her throat.

She bites her lip, but still doesn't meet his eyes. "Yes. All of it, yes."

Now it is his turn to place his lips against the sensitive shell of her ear and torture her the way she was torturing him earlier. Before he speaks, he lightly runs the tip of his tongue along the skin while she shivers. Then he murmurs, "We definitely don't need anybody else involved if you want to do that. Remember our first time?"

"Mm hmm," she answers breathlessly as her heart rate speeds. He had her on top of him rather than the other way around, but his Alpha orders directed every movement of hers against him.

"That's what you do to me, baby. You make me crazy for you."

"Me too, Jake."

"Do you like it when I show you I'm in control by teasing you until you're begging for it? When I hold you there, right on the edge, until you can't stand it any more?"

"Yeah," she nods, and he places a searing kiss just behind her ear. She shivers and her heart palpitates.

"Do you like it when I use your body for my pleasure? Take what I need from your hands, your mouth, your tight pussy?"

He runs his lips down the length of her neck as she mutters, "Uh huh." He sniffs the air and growls at the scent of her arousal.

"When I strip you naked and hold you down in whatever position I feel like?"

"God, I do." She digs her nails into the skin of his shoulders.

"Do you like it when I'm rough with you?" He tugs her collar aside and tongues the mark on the back of her neck until she whimpers.

"Ooh." She can't remember how to say much else.

"Do you like it when I fuck you so hard you see stars when you come?" He lightly sinks his teeth into the mark, but not enough to break the skin.

"Jacob!" She clutches him close to her, the combination of his words in her ear and his mouth on his mark have her close to a climax. Even though he has barely touched her and there are people walking by only feet away.

But instead of using his lips to push her over the edge, he sits back so quickly that she nearly falls over. She looks up at him in shock and finds him looking as smug as she has ever seen him. "What the..."

"That's what you get for that little story about you and me and Leah. Two can play that game, Bells."

She smacks him with her bookbag. "Jacob Black!" And then she winces when the movement tugs at her stitches.

"Oh, don't hurt yourself," he says, attempting to be soothing. But his snickering is less sympathetic.

"Hey, this is your fault!" she fumes as he continues to laugh.

"Well, I'll be dead as soon as Leah sees a new fantasy of the three of us in my brain, so you'll have your revenge."

She pouts at him petulantly and sniffs. "Serves you right!"

He doesn't stop giggling, but he does lean in to try to kiss her, but she pulls away. Unfortunately, it results in another shooting pain in her injured hip. Then he finally stops laughing. "Aw, honey. Let me make it better."

And this time, she does allow him to tug her back to him. He runs one finger lightly over her hip and thigh and presses gentle kisses over her lips, cheek, and neck. She relaxes into his comforting touch. The sensation that courses through her is better than any drug, and much more healing.

He only stops when he hears a throat clearing in front of them. Leah Clearwater has her arms folded over her chest and says archly, "I'd tell you two to get a room, but you'd just find one in the library or somewhere, and then I'd have to come get you guys from campus security."

Bella looks past Leah and finally registers the curious eyes of about a dozen students and faculty walking by, then hides her face in Jacob's neck while he laughs. "I think maybe I'll cut classes tomorrow," she mutters into his skin.

"Cool. Then I'll tell everybody it's because you're having trouble walking."

"Leah!"

She shrugs, "What? It's true. You're totally limping around."

"But not because of, because of, that!"

She smirks. "For the first time since you started dating, maybe."

"Oh shut up, Leah!" Bella stammers.

"Gotta work on those comebacks, Swan. So, you cutting out of your last class?"

Bella looks at her watch. "Shoot. No, I can't. I have to be there."

"Five minutes ago?" Leah offers.

"Ugh, yes," Bella groans.

Jacob stands. "Here. I'll get your stuff and take it over. I'll even carry you if you want," he jokes.

"Right. Just to make sure that anyone who didn't notice us already has a good reason to stare. No thanks."

"You say that like I tricked you into kissing you," he grins.

"You did!"

Now he is laughing again. "How?"

She waves her hands at him. "By showing up at the boring library looking like that with no shirt and then talking to me like you did!"

Leah stifles her own laugh. "If that's the criteria for tricking you, then he's doing it all the damn time."

"He is! It's unfair! Just look at him, Leah."

Leah gives him an appraising glance, and he feels like a cut of meat. It's enough to make his ears turn pink when she stares at his crotch and answers, "Okay, yeah. You're right. But you're really late for class now."

"Crap!" Bella allows Jacob to carry her bag and walk her most of the way to her building, but not all the way inside. Then he and Leah buy cups of coffee and sit back down under a tree.

She doesn't beat around the bush. "So. You broke your imprint."

He stops in the middle of a sip. "Uh, not exactly. More like I rejected it before it could take."

She shrugs. "Semantics."

"It's not like I know _how_ I did it. Hell. I didn't even know I did until my dad said so."

"Nonetheless. Fact is you did what no one else even knew was possible. Good for you." She means it sincerely. "I was a little worried you'd break Bella's heart, although I knew you'd at least put the effort in to fight it, if nothing else. But I didn't actually think you'd pull it off."

"Well," he says uncomfortably, "Like I said, I really have no idea what I did."

"I do," she says calmly.

Surprised, he answers, "You do?"

Leah nods. "You just love her that much."

"Leah," he starts, but he doesn't know what to say. Leah has already moved on, mostly. But he isn't insensitive enough to think that it doesn't sting that he rejected his imprint for Bella, but Sam didn't do anything of the kind for Leah. Not soon enough, anyway. "He loves you too. You know that. He'd have left her if you asked him to stay with you in Seattle."

She shrugs again, idly swirling her coffee and staring into the cup. "Too little, too late. Believe it or not, I do actually have a little pride, Jake."

He snorts at that. "Just a little?"

She smiles wistfully. "There was a long time, not that long ago, when I'd have come crawling back to him if he just crooked his finger at me. Even if he was still with her. Trust me. I know the difference between a little pride and a lot."

He really doesn't know what to say, but he gives her the truth as he sees it. "But don't let yourself think that he didn't love you back then. We both know that's not true."

"Not enough," she says, very quietly.

"Leah..." He is at a loss. He wants Bella to be here for this conversation.

She takes another sip of her coffee. "You love her more than he loved me. Loves me. Whatever."

"But," he starts to protest.

She cuts him off immediately. "It's true. You know it is. And it made a difference. And you're stronger than the rest of us, Jake. Bigger. Faster. You have the best control. But those probably aren't the only reasons you basically reversed the process but he didn't put up even a smidgen of a fight. Or at least, not all of it. Sam was always a straight arrow. Colored inside the lines when he was a kid. Didn't play hooky or sneak beers from his mom's fridge. So when he felt like nobody else in the world meant anything to him but her, all of a sudden, and then the only people who could tell him what's going on tell him she's his destiny, what else was a guy like that going to do?"

"I don't..."

"I know. Don't worry about it. Him, he's a good guy. So are you, but even if you didn't really love Bella, you'd have fought an imprint just to prove you could. Just to prove your mind was still your own. You might not have won, but you'd have at least put up a struggle."

He hopes she is right. It's hard to know since his feelings on the subject were always wrapped up in Bella Swan and the fact that he didn't imprint on her, but Leah probably is correct. "That does sound like me, doesn't it?"

"Yeah." She pokes him in the side of his head playfully. "I've been in there. I know what it's like. Stubborn as a mule, lovesick as a puppy. There's a reason that you're the only wolf in known history to reject your imprint. Jasmine never stood a chance. Just like I never stood a chance." She says the last part of the sentence so quietly that he barely makes it out. But before he can respond, she squeezes his shoulder. "I'm just really proud of you for sticking to your guns, Jacob. And for taking care of her the way you do, and loving her like a woman really wants to be loved. And you're not faking any of it, which is the best part."

"Well, that part's true anyway," he chuckles. He couldn't fake his feelings for Bella if he tried. Hell. He did try right after he phased when he was Alpha ordered to do so, and he broke the injunction to get through to her. "I don't know how not to be with her. I'm not good at it."

"She makes you into the best version of you, Jacob, and you do that for her too." She pauses. "Sort of ironic considering that the woman you were supposed to imprint on actually makes you more of a rabid dog, and you make her a quivering, incoherent mess." She shakes her head. "Not sure I buy your dad's theory that imprinting is to make the shifter stronger."

"Actually, my dad has a new theory."

"Oh yeah?"

"Well, it does seem like imprinting is for reproduction, right? Nearly all the pairs are mated in some way, or expect to be, and the only part of imprinting that was left for me," he trails off.

She snorts. "Was a fucking hard-on. Yeah."

He coughs and clears his throat. "Uh. Well, my dad thought maybe imprinting is to keep a shifter mated to one woman and one woman only. I mean, look at Paul. It's a wonder that before Rachel, he hadn't knocked up half a dozen girls already."

"Huh. Population control?"

"Maybe. Or maybe to keep the pack all in one place. All staying at home."

"So the wolf would want a Suzy Homemaker or something?"

"Could be. I mean, maybe you're right and Sam didn't imprint on you because you can't have kids. Or maybe he didn't imprint on you because you were going to go away with him to college. Not trap him in La Push."

"But Em always said she wanted to go away to school too. And I planned on coming back."

"Yeah, but the threat requires him to be around right now. Not in four years. Plus, now that you've actually been to Seattle, how much do you want to go home?"

"Not much. But it's hard to say if it weren't for being unceremoniously dumped for Emily."

Jacob shakes his head. "I'm sure some things would be different. Lots of things. But you're thriving out here in the world, Leah, and I don't think you would somehow be doing worse if he was out here, happy out of his skull like he was before, with you. And let's face it. Who's more Suzy Homemaker than Emily?"

"That's true," she has to admit.

"Fuck, Leah. She even knows he loves you and not her, and she's still trapping him in La Push."

Her expression hardens. "Yeah. I heard he went home last night, huh?"

Jacob winces. He should have been paying more attention to where the conversation was going. "Yeah. He did. Sorry."

She sighs and shrugs. "If I wanted him to stay with me, I'd have agreed when he offered. But I knew this would happen sooner or later. I told him that I knew her, I've known her my whole life and I know her as well as I know Seth or my mom. And I knew she wasn't going to let him go."

"Sorry," he repeats, uncertain what else to say.

"Don't be. I've learned to be without him, honestly. I thought he was the world. I let him be my world. But that never should have been. The world is the world, and he was my first love. Not my last," she says very quietly, and with a little sparkle in her eye.

"He was a fucking idiot for letting you go."

Now she smiles. "Yeah. He was. Will you keep an eye on him for me once I move?"

"Sure, sure. Of course I will. And I'll also help Seth kick his ass if he bothers you again."

Her smile turns into a wide grin. "Actually, I think I could kick his ass on my own. Only trouble is after everything we've been through, he'd probably like it." Jacob laughs out loud, but before he can move on to less difficult topics, she asks, "So what do you think is going on with the vamps?"

"You mean the Cullens going into hiding? I wish I knew. Part of me wishes Rosalie would go underground with the rest of the family, but I can't blame her for not wanting to just keep on stagnating like the rest of the kids, never actually doing a damn thing."

"Are you afraid she'll lead the tracker to us?"

He nods. "How could I not be? But even if I wanted to tell her to leave, it's too late. There's no point. Irina had it out for us since we killed her mate. And her sister already ran off and tattled. Who knows what she's managed to tell anyone, or even what she knows about us."

"And none of that is Rose's fault."

"Exactly. And I'm not even sure that if we had managed to stay away from the sisters that it would have done any good. It looks like the Volturi want Alice and Jasper since they've lost the ones who came looking for us last summer and need to rebuild their forces. They'd come through Forks looking for traces of the Cullens with or without Tanya, and that would bring them right back onto our doorstep whether or not Rose is still around."

"Do you wish we killed the ones who came for you and Bella last summer?"

Jacob shrugs. "That would have probably just speeded up the process. Their bosses would still have come looking for them no matter what we did."

"You're right. It was still the best possible choice, short of turning back time anyway."

"I actually kind of wish I knew what happened to them."

"No one really knows how they disappeared, huh?"

"Nope," he shakes his head.

"You know," she looks at him askance. "I'm beginning to think that maybe now's not a great time for me to go."

"Hey, hey. None of that. You're going. You deserve it."

She shifts so she can look him directly in the eye. "Jacob, we all deserve it. We all deserve to go live our lives. You, my brother. Fuck. Sam deserves to go live a normal life. But if what we need to do, what I need to do, to keep everyone safe, is stay and guard? Then I'm doing it."

"Do I have to Alpha order you to move to Seattle?"

"Can we just see how things go this spring? This summer? If I defer for a year, it's not like UDub is doing to disappear or something."

He purses his lips. Something bad is coming. He can feel it. But he wants Leah to be happy almost as much as he wants Bella to be happy. "We'll see."

"Agreed. We'll see."

Then their conversation moves onto easier topics. She tells him about the apartment that she and Rachel plan to move into in the spring, and he teases her about Miguel and Sophia. It is irresistible not to call her, "Puppy," and she fully admits to being smitten with Miguel's little girl. She doesn't talk directly about him, though. After all, Jacob isn't one of the girls, and she is a little worried that Jacob might inadvertently let slip details of her personal life into the pack mind.

Soon enough, Bella is finished with class. Jacob catches a ride back home with them, climbing into the driver's seat to give Leah a break. She is capable of operating the vehicle, but turning the wheel still makes the right side of her chest quite sore. It would be faster for Jacob to run home than it will be to drive, but he is in no rush to say goodbye to Bella, nor to see Jasmine again.

But when they pull up to Bella's house, Leah politely drives away to leave Jacob with Bella. He had been planning on staying for dinner, but after ditching Jasmine and his shift, he doesn't think he should remain off the reservation any longer. At the very least, he needs to make sure Jasmine hasn't exposed her wolf form to a human or torn apart La Push in her frustration with his absence. He carries Bella's bag to the house before gently picking her up and pressing his lips to hers. They are warm, soft, and sweet, and he strokes at them until they are swollen and bright pink.

"Mmmm," he hums when he finally leans back. "You taste good."

"Not as good as you."

He gingerly runs his finger over her injured hip. "How's this doing?"

"Not awful. Feels basically normal right now since you're touching me. Your skin on mine it takes the pain away better than anything."

"I wish I could stay to keep making you feel good."

"Will you be back?" she asks tentatively, not wanting to seem pushy or needy, but wanting him all the same.

"I don't know. I'm kind of surprised she isn't in the backyard growling at both of us right now."

She shuffles her feet for a second and then tentatively asks, "Can I make a suggestion that I think is a terrible idea?"

He looks amused. "Shoot, Bells."

She stares into the center of his chest. "I think you should touch her."

"What?" He freezes.

"Not like, you know. Not like that. Just pat her on the back or something."

"Why on earth would I do that?" He makes a face like he has smelled something terrible. "I'd rather kiss Rosalie. Hell, I'd rather kiss Emmett."

She laughs out her tension. "Good. Let's keep it that way. I feel less jealous, then."

He bends down so she has to look him right in the eye and says sincerely, "Honey, you have not one single reason to be jealous, okay? You are everything to me. Everything."

He leans in to kiss her again, but she stops him with a hand on his chest. "I know, Jake. I know you love me, and I love you too. So much. But it's more than that. Your touch makes me feel like every bad thing in my life just falls away. Like pain isn't pain, sadness is just a memory, like my body exists to feel good because of you and not, like, just trip me all the time and make a fool out of clumsy old me."

He laughs and smiles and hugs her gently and kisses the top of her head, wanting to demonstrate some of the wonderful feelings his body can bring out in hers. "You're too sweet, Bells. And that's exactly how I feel about you, minus the tripping and physical disasters and stuff."

"Well," she peeks up at him. "You said Jasmine can't calm down enough to phase back, right?"

"Uh huh."

"I really, really hope that your touch doesn't have exactly the same effect it does on her that it does me. But maybe it'll help her settle down?"

"Oh." As much as he hates it, it's not a terrible idea. "I don't like it, but maybe you're right."

"Anyway, she's basically a great big dog, just like you, right? Scratch her behind her ear or something. Just don't, like, rub her belly." They shudder together, imagining Jasmine's naked human torso suddenly appearing under Jacob's hand.

"Huh. You're too smart for your own good, you know that, Swan?"

She stands up on her tiptoes to draw him down and peck him on the cheek, whispering, "Don't forget it." She slides one of her hands into his back pockets to pull him as close as she can. "And don't forget that you're mine, Black."

He lifts her up and gives her a deep and passionate kiss. "Never, Bells. Never," he murmurs.

She stares after him long after he is gone, wondering if she made a mistake. She trusts him, of course. But she doesn't trust Jasmine at all.

Jacob jogs back to La Push in human form. He really ought to phase in and make sure nothing bad has happened, but he wants another minute of privacy. But soon enough he sees the border of the reservation before him, and just inside the trees, sure enough, two wolves.

Jasmine's small, shaggy orange wolf paces in agitation. Right behind her sits Sam's huge black one. Sam has obviously stayed well past the end of his shift to keep Jasmine in line.

She stops as soon as she sees him, staring at him hard enough to make him even more uncomfortable than he already is. He doesn't meet her gaze, instead turning to Sam and saying softly, "Thanks for sticking around. I appreciate it. I've got it from here."

Sam nods once and then trots off. Jacob watches Sam's retreat but still doesn't phase in. Not only does he need more time to compose himself, but she probably does as well. Not to mention that Brady and Paul have patrol covered. He is only here as a concession to Jasmine. He doesn't look directly at her, instead walking slowly to the west. He has no doubt she will follow.

"Let's take a little more of a walk. I'm going to show you a spot where I like to go and sit. It's a good place to think, have some privacy."

Then he speeds to a brisk run, knowing Jasmine will easily keep up. She trails him through the dense forest, happy to be running and happy to be with him. After around twenty minutes, they arrive near the cliff's edge. The area is inaccessible to anyone but the most tenacious of hikers. They will not be disturbed. He steps out of the forest and sits on the edge, dangling his legs and looking out at the ocean. There is a storm coming in off the Pacific. He can see dark clouds in the distance. She sits on her haunches next to him. He sees her paws out of the corner of his eye, but he does not turn to her.

He wasn't lying. He does come here sometimes to be alone. Or at least he used to. This isn't as intimate a spot for him as his mother's grave, but almost no one ever stumbles upon him here. He spent long hours staring out at nothing and contemplating the dark turns his life had taken when Bella ran away to Italy and came back with Edward in tow. It was a good place to be sullen. And it is too impractical to bring Bella even if he wanted to. The place, therefore, doesn't hold particularly good memories for him, so he can't begrudge sharing it with Jasmine. He hasn't felt the need to come out here and brood in months. But she might need such a place.

"Being a shifter is rough. The universe isn't the place you thought it was. Your friends and family aren't the people you thought they were. You aren't even who you thought you were. Your body does impossible things. And then your mind isn't your own; you have to share it with a bunch of virtual strangers and a spirit animal. And for an imprinted wolf, you can't even count on your will to be your own."

She whines sadly in response.

"There is an upside, of course. Nobody else stands a chance if a leech attacks them. No one else can defend their loved ones from a vamp attack. No one else can go eighty miles an hour on just their feet, or heal a wound in a matter of minutes, or hear a hummingbird flap its wings from fifty feet away."

She grunts a little and shrugs her shoulders.

"I know. Not a great trade off. You don't have to do this forever, though. Someday you'll stop phasing and basically go back to normal."

She looks at him skeptically.

"It's true, more or less. You know Leah is going to UDub soon. It'll probably take longer than you want it to, but you can go live your life eventually."

She slumps back down looking for all the world like a kicked puppy. She doesn't want to go live her life. She wants to stay by his side for eternity.

Eventually she lays her head down on her paws, and he makes a decision. She looks so very non-threatening this way, just like an overgrown dog. He takes Bella's suggestion, reaching out to scratch behind her ears as they stare at the waves. He reaches through her thick pelt and rubs gently.

She makes a low purring sound, and he almost laughs out loud. It isn't because of her reaction, no. It is because of his own.

He doesn't have one. No uncomfortable arousal, no sudden urge to attack. He is every bit as annoyed and frustrated as he was just before he touched her, but that is all. Maybe it is because she is in wolf form, maybe he become acclimated to her, or maybe now that he knows exactly what has happened, he has rejected the last vestige of the imprint in its entirety.

Pleased, he scratches a little more vigorously, and she tilts closer to him. He examines the oncoming rain clouds and says quietly, "Your wolf form is strong, and it is the form of the spirit that has joined you. But your human body is still you. Just more. Think about what your human self feels like. Just relax."

And suddenly, the sensation under his hand is not of thick fur, but warm skin.

He stills his hand, uncertain what to do next. If he yanks away, she might phase right back. So he lets his hand fall from its spot cupping the back of her skull to rest on her shoulder. He keeps his eyes trained directly ahead and says, "See? Not nearly as painful as you were afraid of."

"Oh my god." Her voice is hoarse. "Am I me again?" Out the corner of his eye, he sees her examining an extended hand as she turns it over and back.

"Yeah," he responds. "There's more to you now than there used to be, but you'll always be in there somewhere." He slowly removes his hand from her shoulder, turning to the side so that she is behind him. "I don't know what kind of shape that dress is in now, but why don't you see if it fits."

After a second of rustling, she says, "Okay."

He turns to look at her. She is a complete mess. Her hair is wild and she is covered in dirt. Leah's dress is very tattered. But Jacob hardly registers any of that because it is difficult to look away from Jasmine's eyes. Her expression is pleading, worried, and indescribably sad. He knows she wants him to touch her again.

He stands and offers her a hand to help her up, and she accepts it gratefully. But he drops it as soon as she stands. "Come on. Let's get you home. You have got to be exhausted."

They walk at a normal human pace, arriving at Brady's house around forty minutes later. He doesn't say anything else to her. Anything she wants to hear, he isn't willing to say, and she knows him well enough now not to ask. On the porch, as she turns the knob of the front door, he says, "You're going to be okay. It does get easier from here on out, mostly." Then he turns to go.

She stops him with a touch to his arm, and he can hardly keep the smile off his face when again, he feels nothing more at the contact than the sensation of warm skin. She murmurs, "Thanks."

"Sure, sure." He turns back toward her. "Get some sleep, okay?"

"Yeah," she nods, nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the next and looking away over his shoulder. He knows she wants to say something, so he simply waits. "The way I feel, I'll probably sleep for, like, sixteen hours straight."

He gives her a small smile. "I'm sure you're right. Lucky we're on spring break, I guess. You gonna be okay here tonight?" They both know that what he is really asking is whether she is going to end up on his back porch or in his yard tonight.

She nods back at him before finally meeting his gaze for a fleeting second. "I'll crash. That's all. Maybe I can check in with you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I'll be around." He starts to jog off, noting that he hasn't heard the sound of the door closing behind her.

"Jake?" she calls out. He stops and turns back. She is trying to speak, but her words sound a little choked. "Don't worry about sticking around the Rez tonight, okay?"

He can't keep the smile from tugging up the corners of his lips. "Okay," he says quietly as she disappears inside the house.

X-x-x-x-X


	29. Chapter 28

X-x-x-x-X  
March 27  
X-x-x-x-X

For the first time in days, Bella wakes up in her favorite place in the entire world, Jacob's arms. She stays still as she slowly comes to awareness, sighing happily, cocooned in warmth and comfort. She lies on her side, his right arm serving as her pillow, his entire length tucked against her back. His left arm wraps protectively around her middle. She keeps her eyes closed, afraid that if she opens them, this will turn out to be a dream, and he will disappear.

The arm squeezes gently. In his husky bedroom voice, he murmurs, "I missed you, little spoon."

She smiles and reaches her free arm back to his thigh, pulling him even closer. Then she feels his stiffness pressing against her backside. "Good morning, big spoon. Or should I say, wooden spoon?"

He laughs into her hair. "That's a good one. You're the perfect woman, did you know that? Just as funny as you are sexy and smart."

She finally opens her eyes and rolls onto her back. He leans over her, resting his head on his now free arm, careful not to push against her stitches. He peeks down at her with warm, sleepy eyes and a soft smile. She smiles right back at him. "Pretty far from perfect, I'd say."

He brushes her messy hair away from her face. "Perfect for me. And nothing you can say is going to change my mind about that."

She draws him down for a brief, sweet kiss, then releases him. "Hmm. Not too short?"

He traces his fingers along her clavicle. "Easy for me to pick up and carry around."

"I'm the least coordinated person you know."

He grins at her. "No, you're not. One of the elders has a grandbaby who can't walk yet. He's less coordinated than you."

She gives him a fake pout. "Great. How much longer do I have until he surpasses me in dexterity?"

He kisses away her pout. "Oh, six or seven months, I'd guess. But we've been over this already. I love catching you when you fall. Try again."

She narrows her eyes at him. "I can't hold a tune to save my life."

"Thankfully, no one will ever use that criteria to decide if you live or if you die. And if they do, just let me know. I'll come beat them up for you."

"Now you're just being silly," she laughs.

"Blame yourself. You're the one who started listing faults that aren't faults."

"It's evidence that I'm not perfect like you say."

"Yes you are. Like I said, perfect for me." He drops a dozen little kisses on her lips, cheeks, and eyelids.

When he leans back, she looks him up and down, finding not a single flaw anywhere. There is no way that she compares to the male ideal that he embodies. She peeks down at herself, thinking that her breasts are too small. She isn't shallow enough to say this out loud, but Jacob has always been able to read her like a book and sees her staring at herself.

He interrupts her thoughts by lowering his hand to cup her breast gently through her shirt, and she can't help but arch a little into his hand. "Stop that. These are perfect, too."

"They are not," she protests. Her voice is more breathy than she intends.

"Yes. They are. I looked it up."

That statement stops her. "Huh? Looked it up? Where?"

"Where else? Google."

She just blinks at him.

He gives her a little, embarrassed smile. "I'm a teenage boy, what else did you think I'd do with my free time before you started hanging out with me?"

"Uh, porn, I guess. But if that's the standard, then I'm absolutely certain my breasts aren't perfect."

He snorts. "Porn, well, yeah. But that's not what I mean. Those women look ridiculous, not sexy. Their fake boobs don't move right, and they're a weird shape. Plastic surgeons have figured out what the ideal breast shape looks like, but if my internet research is any indication, they suck at actually creating it. Nah, beautiful breasts have to be natural. Perfect breasts look like yours. They're perky." He runs his thumb over her nipple, and her body responds by demonstrating exactly what he means. He bends over to kiss the hardened peak through the cotton. "See? There's this slope that ends in your small, pretty nipples. They're not too small, trust me. A perfect mouthful." He lightly nips at her with his teeth.

She hisses with pleasure and answers, "You seem to have thought about this a lot."

"More than I should admit," he laughs. "Big ones look good for a couple years, but then they get saggy and really funny looking. And really big ones look silly to me, even before they drop. But that's just me. Other guys like 'em that way."

"Why do I think you're thinking of one of your brothers right now?"

"Jared," he immediately answers.

She smacks him on the arm playfully. "Hey. I didn't say I wanted to know."

"Too late," he chuckles. "It's hard to tell since she wears baggy clothes, but Kim is pretty good for motorboating and..."

"Stop!" she interrupts, hiding her face with her hands. "I said I didn't want to know!"

"I'm just teasing you, Bells," he laughs and pulls her hands away.

She examines him critically. "No, you're not. That was totally the truth. Leah told me she's kinky."

"That's, like, the very least kinky thing they do! The other thing he really likes to do with her boobs..."

"Oh my god, shut up!"

"Sorry," he says, but his grin reveals that he is lying.

She feels her cheeks burning, so she tries to redirect the conversation back to her original topic. "You're staring at my skin. Quit it. I'm too pale until I'm too red. There's this," she indicates her flush, "and the slightest hint of sun gives me a ridiculous burn."

He lifts her shirt to expose her navel, palming her stomach with his hot hand and pretending to examine her closely. "That's what sunblock is for, Bells. How did you survive in Phoenix? Sheesh. Plus, your skin is pretty. I love how it shows off your blush so easily."

"That's embarrassing!"

"It's adorable. And I can use it against you."

"No fair," she laughs and runs her fingers through his hair.

He purrs happily in response, tucking his head into her hand like a puppy. "I'll take any advantage I can get. We know you hold all the cards in this relationship."

She snorts, the statement is so absurd. "The big, bad Alpha says I hold the cards in the relationship? I don't think so."

"Who followed whom around like a lost puppy from, like, birth until now, huh?"

"Should I start calling you 'puppy' like Sophia calls Leah?"

He tucks her head against her shoulder. "You can call me whatever you want, baby."

Just then, the alarm on her phone starts to blare. "Ugh. I don't want to go to class."

"Let's trade," he mutters as he reaches over to silence it. "You can run around the woods all day, and I'll go to your classes. I'll put on a long, brown wig and no one will be able to tell that I'm not you."

"Right," she giggles. "We look exactly alike."

"They do say that couples who spend enough time together start to look like each other. Just like people and their pets look alike."

"So in fifty or sixty years we'll be indistinguishable from each other?"

"Yes. I will shrink, you will grow, and we'll meet in the middle and both be six feet tall. I'll fade, you'll get tan. My hair will get wavy and yours will straighten out. We'll wear the same clothes, and no one will be able to tell who's who." He pecks her on the lips while she giggles before rolling out of bed and helping her up. He notices that the pain he expected in his hip at the movement doesn't materialize. "Hey, you're doing a lot better today, aren't you?"

She wiggles her hips experimentally. "Yeah." She is pleasantly surprised. "It must be because you've been holding me all night long. Everything's better since you've been holding me all night long."

He pulls a comfortable looking pair of yoga pants out of her closet. "You wanna wear this today?"

"Those are soft. Yeah."

He helps her get dressed. She doesn't require the assistance, but it is a lot more comfortable than doing it by herself.

His phone alarm rings next. "Shoot. I guess I have to get going soon. Do you mind?" He points in the general direction of the bathroom.

"Sure. Just try not to get caught by my dad."

He disappears, calling behind him, "He's been gone for half an hour, Bells."

When he returns to kiss her goodbye, she is frustrated to realize he is minty fresh. "You did it again!"

"What?" His eyes twinkle at her. "What'd I do?"

"You kissed me," she whines.

"That's, like, the twentieth time I've kissed you this morning."

Her words are muffled since she has her hand clamped over her mouth. "But the other kisses were equal! You know I don't like it when you brush your teeth and then kiss me before I've had a chance to brush mine!"

He wraps her in a hug, and she feels his body shaking against hers with laughter. "You're adorable. And you taste good. Just you without artificial chemicals or flavors or anything."

She protests, "If natural tastes so good, then why did you brush your teeth?"

"Because I'm a gross, smelly guy. Guys stink and need to fix it." Against her own will, she inhales deeply, her nose still buried in his chest. He smells of the rain and the earth and pine needles, pure Jacob, her favorite scent in the world. He laughs harder. "Are you sniffing me?"

"So what if I am?" she mumbles.

"No worries. Go ahead. Just don't do this with other guys, okay? They might get the wrong idea."

"I'll try to restrain myself."

Too soon, the hug ends, and Jacob jumps down the stairs in three bounds and is out the door into the steady rain. He needs to get home to help Billy before his patrol. Bella finishes getting ready, a bounce in her step that had been missing since the last time he spent the night.

While Bella heads to Port Angeles with Leah, Jacob goes home. For once, the wolf waiting behind his house is Quil rather than Jasmine. He invites his cousin inside for breakfast. Billy joins them in the kitchen, complaining loudly and good naturedly about not having enough food in his house to feed two hungry wolves, and about the wet puddles they are leaving on the floor. Jacob pulls a carton of eggs out of his refrigerator and cracks all of them open in a mixing bowl while Billy cuts slices of ham into cubes, and Quil raids their bag of shredded cheese of half its contents before Jacob can top their omelets.

"I take it the night went okay?" Jacob asks.

His mouth full of toast, Quil answers, "Muh uh." He swallows. "She's still asleep. Probably won't wake up 'til afternoon, I'd guess."

"I spent all night thinking I'd wake up to her yowling and accidentally mauling a neighbor, but I didn't, thank god."

"Bella's got to be relieved, huh? Too bad she doesn't have werewolf healing abilities. You'd have been able to give it to her good la... Oof. Hey? What was that for?" Quil rubs the back of his head where Jacob slapped him, and glares at him indignantly until he notices Billy's wry expression.

"Shut up, dumbass!"

Billy snorts. "Son, you're the dumbass if you think I didn't know you slept in Bella's room last night."

Jacob's ears turn red while Quil smirks at him and nods, adding, "Charlie Swan will shoot you in the ass if you knock up his baby girl."

"At least I'm getting s..." Jacob starts to retort before stopping mid sentence and glancing at his father, who is giving him a pointed look.

"Maybe I should let Rosalie Cullen practice her vasectomy skills on you, son. Because if you get Bella pregnant, I will load hollow point bullets in Charlie's rifle."

"Ooh, the explodey kind?" Quil asks.

"I get it! I get it!" Jacob sputters. "Can we stop having this conversation?"

"As a parent, it is my responsibility to knock some sense into you, and my right to embarrass you as much as possible," Billy answers solemnly.

Jacob inhales the rest of his breakfast with a rather childish frown on his face. But he eats so quickly that the humiliation only lasts a minute more. Right after Quil jogs away, still laughing at Jacob, he helps Billy transfer his wheelchair into the back of his pickup. And then he is truly alone for the first time in days. He is a social creature, but sharing his brain space with ten rowdy wolves sometimes makes him want to shut himself inside, preferably with Bella, and not come out again.

He gets fifteen minutes of solitude.

And then he is due for patrol. Jared is signing out to Sam when he arrives.

_Kim's been itching for a double date with you and Em for a while now. The girls have been hanging out a lot during all the insanity lately, and she wants to do something nice and normal. I told her maybe we could do it tonight, after your day shift and before my overnight. What do you think?_

_Yeah, _Sam answers automatically. _Em wants to do that too._ Jacob hears the lack of enthusiasm in his tone, but Jared is happy to be able to make his imprint happy.

_Great. I'll tell Kim. The girls can figure out what they want to do._

_Okay. See you then._

Jared disappears.

Jacob doesn't ask, knowing Sam isn't one to have a heartfelt discussion about his relationship with one of his brothers. Once upon a time, he would have talked with Leah about his feelings, but those days are long gone. He has never had an open discussion with Emily about any doubts or fears, not since their last argument resulted in the wounds that permanently scarred her face. She expects him to be solid, stoic, and reassuring, and so he is. It isn't a lie, exactly. He is all those things. He is a leader, a protector, and a good man. But every good man has second thoughts about the choices he makes, and Sam's doubts have hit him very suddenly in a very short period of time. And he has absolutely no one to talk to.

Jacob sends wordless sympathetic emotions his way, but says nothing in particular. It would only make them both uncomfortable. And at any rate, when in this form, his conscious layer is all wolf. But Jacob is acutely aware of the man beneath, which makes Sam aware of the man beneath. So unlike most days before Leah started pulling away from the pack, there is a thread of dissatisfaction weaving its way through Sam's thoughts.

The thread pulls taut when Jacob's route brings him close to the Clearwater house, and he sees her toss her messenger bag into her backseat. She wears a black pencil skirt and fitted, long-sleeved white top. Her outfit isn't flashy or overly revealing, but is so entirely unlike the shorts and tank tops or tattered sundresses she wears around the pack that Jacob actually pauses for a few seconds to look at her.

Which means Sam looks at her through Jacob's eyes. He is drawn immediately to the wet drops clinging to her long, long legs, the hair brushing her cheeks, the curve of her waist, the swells of concealed breasts, and her soft mouth. For a split second a flash appears in the pack mind. Leah, perhaps two years less in age, but a lifetime less in sorrow, jumping out of the ocean wearing a simple black and white bikini and into Sam's arms. Cool, full lips against his, her long, dripping hair leaving a tickling path of saltwater trailing down his chest. The sound of pure, bright laughter.

Sam's imprint buries it quickly, but Jacob can't help his own reaction. His thoughts don't come in words, but they both know that that Leah is gone forever, the sweet, warm, kind girl that nearly every boy in La Push had a crush on at one time or another. In her place stands this new, vibrant creature. Biting wit instead of soothing comfort. Deadly strength instead of protective shelter. Burning passion instead of welcoming warmth. Fierce beauty rather than soft loveliness.

And just one word from Sam. _Leah._

She drives away, and a tiny piece of Sam goes with her.

_Emilyemilyemily! _says the imprint as soon as the car is out of sight. _I can make her so happy. _And underneath, very faintly, Jacob hears, _And make Leah so very, very sad._

The thought is gone as soon as it comes. Jacob asks tentatively, _Everything okay?_

Sam has nearly forgotten Leah again. The fog in his head swirls, and he answers, _Yeah. Em wants to go out, like Jared said. She'll have a good time. It'll be good for her. When Kim calls her to figure out what to do, it'll put her in a good mood. She'll get to look forward to it all day long. So it'll be a good day._

Jacob doesn't bother to ask if it will be a good day for Sam.

They run in silence, the only sound the rhythm of their paws and the slight squish of the damp ground. When Sam passes behind Brady's home, he hears Jasmine stirring inside. The sun is directly overhead, although hidden by cloud cover. _Jake, you think you ought to..._

_Yeah. I'll be right there, _Jacob sighs. He doesn't want to, not in the least, but she is his responsibility. _So much for a peaceful shift. _

_At least she's not in your brain right now, and you don't have to be in hers either. _

_I know. It's just been a long couple of weeks. _

And another memory escapes from the depths of Sam's mind. Leah phasing in unexpectedly while facing off against Irina, the horrifying realization of just how badly she was hurt, the knowledge that he was miles away from being able to help her, the sheer terror when she disappeared from the pack mind in a blur of pain. And under it all, the worst yet, the knowledge that he himself had hurt her more badly than any vampire ever could.

He is able to remember those days vividly, not only due to the recent timing, but because even if his wolf suppressed the romantic inclinations he had toward her, she is the wolf's sister, and he feared for her safety. And now that he knows his own heart, it is impossible to completely ignore it.

_She's fine. Better than fine, _Jacob reassures Sam.

_She's practically indestructible. If only we didn't keep testing her limits. _And so quietly that Jacob almost misses it, _Even I couldn't destroy her. _

Jacob knows that Sam wants to be alone with his thoughts, so he changes the subject quickly. _I guess I should thank Jasmine for giving me some privacy last night, only she might take it the wrong way, and then she'd get pissed and phase in again. _

_Actually, thank Paul. He's the one who convinced her to give you some space._

_Huh. He's full of surprises these days, isn't he? _And then, to give Sam the same favor, he phases out a little early. _I'll be back. Howl if you need me. _

It only takes a few more minutes to arrive at Brady's house. He can see Jasmine through the kitchen window. No one else appears to be home. He phases, suddenly wishing he had a shirt, and knocks on the back door.

Her face lights up as soon as she opens the door. "Jacob! Come on in." She steps aside, eyeing the rain water beading on his skin in the same way Sam just looked at Leah.

He stops himself from scowling at her, but he does ask, "Hey, can I have a towel?" He doesn't know whether she realizes how unnecessary this is for his physical comfort.

"Of course." She rummages in a linen closet and emerges with an old brown bath towel. He dries his hair and wraps it around his shoulders, wishing it was bigger.

"Did you sleep okay?" He stands awkwardly in the middle of the room with none of the ease he has always felt in the Swan house

"Like the dead. You want something to drink?" She peeks in the refrigerator. "We've got Coke, OJ, milk, uh..."

"Juice is good."

He sits at the kitchen while she pours glasses for both of them and digs around in the refrigerator more. "My aunt knew I'd be starving when I woke up, so she left some food. It's some kind of jambalaya. Want some?"

"Sure, sure. I can always eat." Besides that, it will give him something to do besides feel uncomfortable.

She pops a large mixing bowl in the microwave and sits down across from him, opening with, "So that wasn't all just a nightmare, huh?"

"'Fraid not. It gets a little easier, though, once you learn good control."

She frowns, staring intently at her glass of juice. "I am so, so sorry. Is she okay?"

He is glad he won't meet his eyes since he can't keep his frown off his face. "She'll be okay. Sore, you know. And it's better if I can be over there to help her. It hurts her less."

She looks up, startled. "You mean literally?"

He nods. "Literally. If it put my hand on her wound, it hurts less." He is tempted to tell her about the pleasant electric sensation that transfers between their skin whenever they touch, the connection that formed in their dreams after he tricked the Volturi into thinking they were dead. But while he wants her to understand just how tightly he has bound himself to Bella, he also wants to keep these details to himself. It isn't her business just because she imprinted on him.

"That's amazing. Do any of the other wolves do that?"

"No, I don't think so. I'm not sure it's a wolf thing."

"Does it work on other people? Like if your dad hurts himself or something?"

"I don't think so. It's just me and Bella. We're connected."

She looks at him in confusion. She can't stop herself. "Is that why you didn't... why you didn't... Did she block it?" She starts to tremble, and the trembling becomes shaking.

"Hey, hey, relax." He immediately stands and moves to put a hand on her shoulder, and she grasps at it with her other hand, hanging onto him tightly. Now that his own rejected imprint is completely broken, his only discomfort is psychological.

The shuddering slowly stops. "Thanks," she says quietly.

He waits until her grip on his hand relaxes before speaking again. He answers her earlier, unspoken question. "I don't know. My wolf resisted it. I resisted it. I just love her too much for anything to come between us." She looks positively devastated, but he isn't going to lie. She needs to know where he stands. "We really don't know why imprinting happens, or how it happens, or what it's for. There are a lot of theories, but that's all."

Very quietly, she asks, "But imprints are supposed to be mates, right?"

"Usually," he admits. "It must not have always happened that way, though, because we're told that imprinted wolves have to fulfill the needs of their imprints. Look at Paul."

"And Quil told me he's going to try to stop phasing when Claire's still a kid so she doesn't start to get romantic feelings for him."

Jacob's eyes widen, although he isn't completely surprised. "That's good. Real good. He'll always be a part of her life, but it would be much healthier for both of them if it could stay like siblings." Jasmine nods, but she looks conflicted. They both know that what she wants from him isn't a brotherly relationship, although now that they aren't sharing the pack mind, she can at least keep the thought to herself.

Before she can steer the conversation back toward unpleasant territory, the microwave beeps, and she gives him a heaping plateful of her aunt's jambalaya. They eat quickly, making awkward small talk about school and mutual acquaintances. Jacob explains that she should not return to school until she has control over her temper and can be relied upon not to phase with dozens of students around. She tells him that Paul, scheduled to begin patrol in two hours, already offered to work on phasing with her that very afternoon.

They are interrupted by the sound of a couple short barks outside. She looks up in alarm, but he reassures her that it is just an announcement, not an emergency howl. They both head outside. Jacob reassures her that she does not need to phase in yet. Instead, he does, and she follows closely behind him.

The moment he enters the pack mind, he hears Sam welcoming Embry and Seth. They are on their way back to the reservation, and both minds swirl with wordless images and emotions. Jacob's eagle leads the way. It had been watching over them in his stead.

Embry's memory is full of sounds, great and small. Growls, chirps, chitters, snarls, caws, whines, barks, and songs, a cacophony of languages. And Embry understands them all. The ancient brown bear led him from place to place, animal to animal, and stood by as he learned how to listen to each one. He could have stayed in the forest for weeks, months, years, even, listening to the tales the animals have to tell. But his own pack called him home.

Embry speaks. _I guess I have to work on my Quileute. I can understand them all, but they can't understand me. I remember a little Makah, but I only know a few words in Quileute. _

Jacob asks, _Speaking in Makah didn't work? I'm not surprised that English was useless, but I'm a little surprised that Makah was foreign to them. I guess I thought that the speech that mattered was the speech of this land, of this place. And the Makah have been here as long as we have._

Sam answers, _I think it's because of the taxilit. I think they serve as a translator, of sorts. I've had the easiest time communicating with animals when my taxilit has been nearby. It's a bit harder if I'm on my own. And our guardians are Quileute spirits, not Makah. Embry, I've been practicing my Quileute. We can do it together._

_Do you think our guardians can't understand us when we speak in English? _Seth asks, curious.

_I'm pretty sure mine is just stubborn, _Sam responds dryly. But underneath his words is a different undercurrent of thought. The only other warrior with such fluency, besides himself, is Jacob. But Jacob seems to have innate strengths in every type of skill, and his guide is an eagle, not a bear. All four of them wonder the same thing at the same moment. If Leah were to find her taxilit, would it, like Seth's, be a mountain lion? Would she share Seth's ability? Is their ability connected to their genes?

_I suppose if we wanted to know, there are easier ways to find out. There always have been, _sighs Sam.

_I'd be fooling myself if I said I didn't want to know. _Frustration seeps into Embry's tone as he thinks of his mother and absent father. _But I want her to tell me. I want her to volunteer the truth, and I don't want to have to drag it out of her. I thought she'd tell me after we told her about us. I mean, it's obvious, right? My father can't be the ex she said he was. _

_She didn't say anything?_ Seth asks.

_No. She was just so overwhelmed when we told her about us, and scared, too, that something bad was going to happen to me. I didn't want to push it too hard. Plus I figured she'd say something when she had time to absorb it all. But she hasn't. I spent so much time being mad at the wrong guy. Now I don't even know who to be mad at._

_Honestly?_ Jacob sighs. _When she still didn't say anything, I thought it raised the odds of it being Quil's dad. I never quite figured out why she'd be protecting Sam's dad. Sorry, man, but it's true. And yeah, I know my dad's a candidate. I just really, really can't see it. Or maybe I just don't want to._

_Well, _Sam answered, _We all thought my dad was the most likely candidate to begin with. Nobody was ever rude enough to say so except Leah, but she was only saying what we all thought. And this kind of makes it seem even more likely. _

_Right, _responds Seth. _I mean, there's no question that Jake and Collin are related, and their taxilits are both birds. _

_I'm going to just flat out ask my mom. She'd just better have a good reason for not telling me before._

Sam cautions, _It's only fair that you know once and for all, Embry. But just remember, she might not have been trying to protect my... our dad. She might have been trying to protect herself. He's not the most decent guy._

_Yeah. Fuck. Let's talk about something else, _Embry grumbles. He and Seth are still about twenty minutes from the reservation. Jacob and Jasmine have reached the border, where Jacob phases out briefly to update her. He points out the a distant speck in the sky, and she soon realizes it is his eagle. It reaches them abnormally quickly and lands on his outstretched arm. The ancient animal blinks placidly at Jasmine, who stares at it in awe. A few minutes later, it flings itself into the sky, and Jacob phases back in.

When he returns to the pack mind, Seth is showing them his new talents. The other wolves watch his memories with no small amount of jealousy.

_Dude, why can't that be my power? _Embry mutters. They see Seth's spirit flying through the clouds. He soared and dipped over and over, drawing the moisture in them together until they formed fat water droplets, bringing rain. He whirled in spirals until he formed cyclones. He forced the clouds away to create pockets of sunlight and warm weather, then gathered them back together until he formed a stormcloud. In his glee, he agitated his creation until thunder erupted, and with a twist and a dive he slammed into the cloud, forcing a lightning bolt down to the ground.

His brothers were awed, but his taxilit had not been. He earned a yowling, snarling reprimand from the mountain lion pacing in irritation below him. In his careless enthusiasm, he had destroyed an ancient oak tree, setting it on fire, and scattered a dozen small animals. Chagrined, he had immediately set a rain cloud right over the burning tree before the fire could become a conflagration.

To distract his brothers from their laughter at his expense, Seth asked, _Jake, do you think you could do that? You seem to have all of the abilities. _

_Maybe. I was able to control both water and fire last week. I knew about wind before. I guess clouds and weather are basically just water, right? _

_That's almost all the elements except earth, _notes Sam. _Maybe you should see if you can do anything to the earth sometime. _

Embry adds, _Creating a rockslide could be helpful in a fight, depending on what the terrain is. Or wouldn't it be cool if you could split the ground open and make a vamp fall in?_

Seth says enthusiastically, _Between that and Jake's power over fire, we'd hardly even have to fight a vampire anymore._

Jacob shakes his head. _Except I can't do any of that when I'm a wolf. I'd have to sit out of every battle, at least the wolf would, so I could spirit walk. _

_Who cares about a vampire battle, _Embry answers. _Just get rid of this rain. I'm sick of the wet. I want a sunny day for once. _

Jacob grins. _We should clear the clouds this weekend. Let's have a party. Celebrate you guys coming home, Leah healing up._

_Our new sister, _Sam adds quietly.

_Yeah, _he admits grudgingly_. Her too. _

After that, Jacob phases out to tell Jasmine about their planned bonfire Saturday night, explaining that the pack wants to welcome her to their ranks and celebrate Seth and Embry's return. He details their newfound powers to her, and she listens in fascination. Around the time he finishes, Seth and Embry burst into the clearing in human form.

Seth almost tackles Jasmine in an enthusiastic greeting, and she can't help but grin at his exuberance. Seth immediately offers to work with her on phasing whenever she wants to. They decide to do so that very afternoon with Paul after feeding the ravenous Seth. The cousins wander away, chatting animatedly.

After they go, Embry says to Jacob, "So. I go away for a couple days and you let all Hell break loose, huh?"

"Sam told you?"

"He gave us a quick snapshot while you were still inside with Jasmine. Bella okay?"

"You know Bells. She hardly cares about the giant gash in her leg."

"But I'll bet she's worried about you," Embry answers astutely.

"She's got nothing to worry about. I love her," Jacob states firmly.

Embry actually laughs. "No kidding. She can't see into your brain, but we can. It's a good thing, too. She doesn't know how much of an idiot you really are."

"I may be a lovesick fool," Jacob grins, "but at least I know what my woman wants, unlike some other people I know."

"What'd I do now?" Embry asks.

"Dude, you forgot your anniversary."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know, I saw it in Jasmine's brain. Julie's all pissed at you because you didn't get her something or take her out or anything last week."

"What the hell was last week?"

"I don't know, you tell me. She's your girlfriend, or she was, anyway," Jacob snickers.

"Shit." Embry frowns. "It's gotta be one of those fake anniversaries. You know, like first kiss or first hug or first time I noticed she cut her hair or some crap."

"First time she dumped your pathetic ass."

"Shut up, dude, and help me figure out what it is! I know it isn't a first date anniversary. That was sometime in December. I still don't know what date it is, but I lucked out. I'd gotten her earrings as a Christmas present, even had it wrapped at the store. I forgot all about it, left it on my desk, and she found it and started squealing that I'd remembered. I didn't know what the fuck she was talking about, but she went on and on about how thoughtful I was and how touched she was that I remembered, so I just faked it until she mentioned the first time I took her out to a restaurant. I still don't know what the actual day is, and I had to get her another Christmas present. Man, I was just getting back in with her after forgetting Valentine's. This blows," he whines.

Jacob laughs at him. "Goodbye, Julie. Hello, right hand."

"Shut up," Embry snaps irritably. "You're so damn lucky. Your girlfriend barely accepts presents for her birthday or Christmas."

"I am lucky." Jacob nods happily. "But Jasmine can probably help you out here."

"Hey, yeah. You're right. Even if she doesn't want to, she's probably no good at shielding her brain yet, is she?"

"The worst," Jacob groans. "I can hardly stand to be phased in with her."

"Pfft. Poor Jacob. Too many hot girls want his ass."

"She doesn't 'want my ass', she fucking imprinted on me, man. It's a total nightmare!"

"But you didn't?"

"I guess I rejected it."

Jacob spends the rest of their walk filling Embry in on the details of what happened while he was gone. When they reach his yard, Jacob returns to finish his patrol, stops at home for a shower and to pick up his father, then heads to Bella's house for dinner. He runs into Leah there. When she hears that Jasmine is awake and spending the evening with Seth, she immediately departs to go find them, saying she wants to talk to her cousin to "dispel all the fuckery you guys must have filled her mind with, then knock some goddamn sense into her". Then Jacob and Billy proceed to make a mess of Bella's kitchen, cooking dinner while she does homework at the table and teases them. By the time Charlie gets home, there are more dishes in the sink than he thought he owned, but a satisfying meal waits on the stove.

He glances at his family, surreptitiously watching the seemingly innocent touches that pass between his daughter and her boyfriend. Neither teenager is so foolish as to do anything inappropriate in front of their fathers. But throughout the meal, their knees nudge together, their fingers keep meeting, and they even playfully elbow each other from time to time. When Charlie clears the table and Billy rolls to the refrigerator for a beer, Bella finally looses a tickling assault on Jacob's ribs. He laughs until he snorts, unable to retaliate for fear of accidentally tugging at her stitches.

"Who's the big, bad wolf now?" she yells.

"Hey, hey," he laughs. "No fair!"

Bella doesn't let up. "Yes it is. You have no other weaknesses. This is my only weapon against you, short of kneeing you where it counts!"

He whoops, "Wait, why? What did I do to deserve this?"

Billy answers for her with a smile. "She's telling you who's boss. Women need to do that every couple of days. Remind you who's in charge."

Jacob finally squirms so much that he falls out of the small kitchen chair, landing in a heap on the floor with a thump, his feet sticking up on the seat of the chair. Bella doesn't hesitate, attacking the most ticklish spots on his body, his soles.

"Aah! No! Make it stop!" he yells.

But then they are all startled by deep, rolling laughter from the backyard. A huge figure throws the back door open with a bang. "You show him who's in charge, little sis!"

"Oh my gosh!" Bella finally releases Jacob's feet to throw her arms around Emmett Cullen. "I missed you so much!"

"Missed you too! Look like you put him in his place, huh?" Jacob pouts at the humiliation of being discovered writhing on the floor by a pair of vampires.

Rosalie appears, smirking, behind her husband, as Emmett sets Bella back on the floor. "You should talk, dear. We both know that I can incapacitate you in five seconds flat."

Emmett waggles his eyebrows at her. "That's only because I like it so much!" he bellows. And then more quietly, he whispers, "But from what I hear, someone else here likes being tied down more than I do."

Rosalie rescues Bella as she blushes bright red. "Don't pay him any mind, Bella. He's got the emotional maturity of a twelve year old. Come on. Let me check your stitches."

While the girls disappear upstairs, Emmett and Jacob update one another. Alice did get a stream of visions of Tanya's future just before leaving. Each of them consisted of her getting on or off a different plane, and she again saw the blonde vampire standing in an old cathedral, but she still had no idea where it was located. Most worrisome of all, her vision of the empty, windowless room whose walls were covered in blood had not changed, nor had she gotten any more information about what it might signify, nor how to prevent it.

Emmett explains, "We're not exactly sure what it means, but Tanya's probably looking for allies. She knows you guys took out Irina while she was on her own, so she knows she can't approach you on her own. She's probably trying to find backup."

Jacob absorbs the information. "Could Alice tell if she was able to recruit any help?"

"Don't know, sorry. Too many variables, I guess. And you know that she can't see anything directly involving your pack, so that makes it even harder."

"Any sign that she's going to try what Victoria did and create her own army?"

"No. She realizes it didn't work the first time. And she's sort of specific about her grudges. She doesn't want a pack of murderous newborns rampaging and killing random humans."

"She just wants to kill us? Great."

Emmett hands over a small suitcase. "This is from Jasper."

"What is it?" Jacob asks.

"Don't know, don't want to know. Can't tell anybody if I've got no clue," he answers, so Jacob doesn't open it in front of him. The other Cullens are long gone for a reason, leaving Emmett and Rosalie without any way to contact them. They hope their ignorance will protect them, but all of them are aware of the risk they are taking by not running. Emmett shrugs it off. "I'm not a pansy, and neither is she. We'll face what comes."

"Are you sure they'll come for you?"

"Yeah. Hard to imagine they wouldn't. But it's almost helpful that Aro can read our memories. All he has to do is touch us and he'll realize we really don't know anything. And we can take Tanya, no problem, if she comes poking around by herself."

"If Aro reads Rose, won't he see how she helped us and punish her for it?"

"We hope it doesn't come to that, but it's worth the risk. Rose has had enough of wasting her years. She wants to live a real life, and she will. I'll make sure she gets to. But I doubt Aro will come all the way here, put himself at risk, just to touch our hands. They could drag us back there if they wanted to, provided we can't fight them off. But I don't think we'll have to. I hope they realize we're not so stupid as to stay behind if we know anything that could give up the rest of the family."

"Sort of a big risk, don't you think?" Jacob asks, skeptically.

"Yeah," Emmett grins. The thought actually seems to please him. "But Alice had visions of us doing fine. She can't stand that she couldn't give us all the details, but fine is fine, right?"

"Just don't get dragged back to Italy, okay? You may not care about Aro finding out about you, but if he sees inside your minds, he'll know all about Bella and the pack. We'll back up Rose, don't get me wrong. She's practically pack herself. But I can't have her letting on that Bella is still alive. They don't know already, do they?"

"Nah. As far as Alice could tell, Irina and Tanya never got close enough to you all to figure out all the details. If they had, Aro would have granted Tanya an audience just to get the information out of her."

"Good. They have to stay in the dark."

With a black grin, Emmett reassures Jacob, "We won't get taken. But if we do, Aro won't get to us while we're still alive to tell him any tales."

Jacob is almost reassured. The girls return, Bella ignorant of the discussion that just took place. While they talk, Jacob retreats into Bella's bedroom and opens the case. In old fashioned, handwritten script, Jasper has written out instructions on thick cardstock. Underneath the card is a new laptop. Apparently, he and Alice will set up a new, secure email account if they ever want to send a message to the pack. Each account will be used only once, and Jasper has software to render the IP addresses untraceable. As such, he will not send any messages directly to the personal accounts of any of the wolves; rather, he had apparently created secure accounts, which the pack is to begin checking regularly on the enclosed computer, which itself is equipped with encryption software. His instructions are clear that they should not use the computer in their homes or at school, or anywhere else they normally go, nor should they attempt to contact the Cullens.

After stashing the computer in Bella's closet for the night, he makes his way back down the stairs. The serious mood that had overtaken him while considering Alice's visions fades as soon as he sees Bella laughing with her friends. Rosalie and Emmett settle into the kitchen chairs while Jacob and Bella do the dishes together. Jacob chooses that moment to get her back for tickling him so mercilessly. He deliberately asks to wash, letting her dry, then soaks her from head to toe in sudsy water, loudly and repeatedly apologizing for his clumsiness before "accidentally" splashing more water on her.

Their fathers are amused from the next room, as is Emmett, until Charlie peeks in to check the state of his floor, finding it thoroughly drenched. But he doesn't care about the linoleum. He stares daggers at Jacob when he realizes the translucent state of his daughter's white shirt.

As soon as he catches sight of the police chief's deep scowl, Jacob starts apologizing profusely while Emmett tries to stifle his laughter at Jacob's humiliation, whispering to Rosalie, "The big, bad wolf is afraid of his father in law."

Then Jacob makes things worse by dabbing at the front of Bella's shirt with a dishtowel in a futile attempt to dry it.

"Get your hands off my baby girl," Charlie snarls, sounding surprisingly like a wolf himself.

Bella is equal parts mortified and appalled when Jacob freezes, his hands plastered awkwardly on her breasts, only two layers of fabric separating them. He squeaks, "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean anything by it!"

Emmett can't contain his uproarious laughter. "It's like watching a live comedy show. Smack him in the nose with a newspaper, Chief Swan! He's a dog, it'll make him back down!"

But Rosalie is the one who gets the last word. Through his mirth, Emmett had been eyeing Bella's chest himself, not very subtly. So when Rosalie drags him out with two fingers pinching his ear, Jacob gets to laugh right back at him.

When Jacob returns later that evening to sneak into Bella's window, he doesn't make it out of the forest. Charlie Swan sits on his back porch, carefully cleaning his hunting rifle, shotgun, and service weapon. Once done, he then methodically adjusts the long distance sight on the rifle. Jacob slinks back home after waiting nearly an hour after Charlie, practicing his hold and stance, aims the barrel of the gun directly at the wolf hidden behind the trees. Jacob is certain that in the moonless night, Charlie cannot actually see him, but he decides not to test the theory. He retreats listening to the howling laughter of Paul and Collin in his mind.

When he gets home, a message awaits him on his phone, and he wishes he had received it just a little sooner. "Charlie's suspicious. Better not come over."

At the same moment, he hears his father's voice from his room. Billy isn't even bothering to whisper, knowing that his son will hear him anyway, and he is laughing hard. "Yeah, Charlie. He just got home. You can put the guns away now. Did you end up sharpening the hunting knives too?" He even raises his voice to make sure Jacob gets the message. "Boy's not coming over tonight, you can bet on it. If he tries to sneak out, I'll put some birdshot in his behind, how 'bout that?" Jacob glares at his father uselessly through the wall.

After a hearty chuckle, Billy adds, "You remember the disaster you got me into trying to sneak into Sarah's house?" By now, Jacob is fairly certain that his father is laughing so hard that he probably has tears streaking down his cheeks. After a pause, he hears, "It absolutely was your fault! If you'd have held up your end of the bargain, I'd never have gotten stuck in the doggy door to begin with!" Then there is another round of uproarious laughter. "Good thing Harry was there. Her father would have killed me if he'd found out. Oh, we're getting karmic payback now, old man." And after another pause, he closes with, "We can't keep them apart forever. But it sure is good fun to try! Better sport than fishing!" Jacob pouts childishly, alone in his room, for the rest of the overheard half-conversation.

But when Billy calls out, "Jake, Charlie says goodnight and sweet dreams," Jacob can't keep the smug smile off his face. Thank goodness Charlie doesn't know what Jacob does to his little girl in their dreams.

X-x-x-x-X


	30. Chapter 29

X-x-x-x-X  
March 28  
X-x-x-x-X

On Friday morning, Bella blinks at the rain streaking down her window. She stretches gingerly. Her wound is healing nicely according to Rosalie, but it aches more than it did the day before. She can only assume that is due to the fact that her own natural painkiller, Jacob, was unable to spend the night with her. Of course, they weren't exactly apart. She had waited until she heard Charlie laughing on the phone with Billy about the little scheme for revenge that they had pulled on their children, then gave up and went to bed, knowing she would still see Jacob in her dreams.

There, she had rediscovered the advantage of meeting on the dream plane rather than the corporeal one. In that other place, she had suffered no injury. Jacob had made love to her all night long, a feat that would have been impossible had he actually been in her bed. Her body wasn't nearly as ready as her heart was.

Her stitches remind her just how far she is from ready in the moment she gets out of bed. She limps to the bathroom, slowly grooms and readies herself, then makes her way down the stairs. Charlie sees her grabbing at the bannister to stay upright. "You doin' okay there, Bells?"

"Fine, fine. Just stiff is all," she lies.

He looks skeptical. "More than stiff, I'd say. How are you getting to school this morning? You don't look safe to drive. I can be late today, drop you off."

"No, but thanks. Don't let me make you so late to work. Leah said she'd still be able to take me. She isn't patrolling today. Rose and Carlisle told her to wait until Monday to phase, so she should be free. I hate to put her out, but frankly she'd just as soon spend the day in Port as she would La Push."

Charlie nods and makes his way out of the house. Fifteen minutes later, just as Bella is pouring Leah's favorite hazelnut coffee into a travel mug, she hears a car pull up the drive. But when she opens the door, instead of revealing Leah's old Civic, she sees the Rabbit behind a grinning Jacob, who nearly tackles her back into the house. A few drops of coffee end up on the tile in the entryway.

"Sorry! Sorry, I'm just so happy to see you, Bells!" He rights her and kisses her firmly on the lips. And before she quite knows what is going on, he has cleaned the floor, taken her bag and books from her arms and transferred them to the car, and topped off the coffee with a generous splash of cream. "Good morning." He kisses her again, this time very sweetly and gently.

She finally finds her voice as she smiles at him and realizes the pain in her hip has all but disappeared. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm your ride! Seth and Leah are going to stay with Jasmine today. Embry offered to take my patrol when he saw just how pathetic I've gotten over missing my Bella time this week. So I'm your chauffeur today. And you're stuck with me almost all day long. I plan to audit your classes. If anyone cares, I'm a prospective student, and you're showing me around."

Jacob keeps his right hand entwined with hers for the entire hour-long ride, squeezing it from time to time or bringing her knuckles to his lips for tiny kisses. She makes fun of him for the silly grin on his face until he smirks at her and points out that her expression is exactly the same as his. They playfully argue with one another about the radio station. Jacob has a distinct disadvantage since he refuses to let go of Bella's hand to actually turn the knob, although he is certainly strong enough to drag her hand with his to poke at the dials, while her other hand is free to keep tuning it away from the awful "Morning Zoo" show he keeps trying to listen to. She finally leans over and cups her hand over the controls, refusing to back away until he agrees to compromise on a benign classic rock station. Neither of them brings up Jasmine, not wanting to ruin their good mood or allow her to intrude any further into their time together.

He drops her off on campus for her first class while he takes a detour to pick up a part for the Mustang that he had been wanting to get all week long. Progress on the car has stalled, along with just about everything else, after Jasmine phased. But when she enters her next lecture, he is sitting in the back row, arms casually slung over the empty seats on either side of him, casually nodding to the students eyeing him curiously as they walk down the aisle near him. Bella plops down into the seat next to him, snuggling into his warmth.

"Are you sure you feel like sitting through all these classes? You could go get some work done on the Mustang and come back for me, you know."

"Well, I was starting to miss school, and all. A whole week away from classes? I have to have my fix."

She arches her brow at him skeptically. "Are you going to be able to stay awake?"

He grins back at her. "Let's face it. I'm going to stay awake to enjoy my Bella fix, not my school fix."

And he does. When the instructor enters, he bounds down to the front, and in twenty seconds flat not only has the young woman convinced that he is truly interested in an education in Peninsula, but that he has a genuine interest in statistics. By the time he turns around to wink at Bella, Dr. Richards is flushed and stammering an agreement.

For the next hour, he appears to he staring intently at the lecturer, feigning fascination with the topic at hand. Of course, what he actually does is look at her out of the corner of his eye, a private little smile turning up the side of one mouth. He is so happy just to be in her presence, and she can feel the affection radiating off him in waves. He occasionally throws his arm over her shoulders, or twists her hair around his finger, or runs the tip of his index finger along her collar. From time to time he allows his skin to make the briefest contact with hers, and sparks pass between them. It is terribly distracting, and his focused attention keeps a blush on her cheeks the entire time.

She, however, is doing a much worse job of being subtle, or even of paying attention. "Miss Swan? Bella Swan?" She barely registers Dr. Richards calling out her name, but she sees Jacob trying not to laugh at her while he holds her calculator in his lap and types out a number. She glances down. It says, "400". She pops her head up to blink at Dr. Richards, knowing she looks like a deer in the headlights. "What sample size do you need for a confidence interval of 95%, Miss Swan?"

She stares at the figures scribbled all over the white board and hopes. "400?"

Dr. Richards nods efficiently at her. "Exactly, thank you."

When the instructor turns back toward the board, she whispers, "How did you know that?"

Jacob's eyes twinkle with amusement as he answers quietly, "She explained it just now, Bells. Weren't you paying any attention?"

She resists the urge to smack him when she realizes Dr. Richards has turned to face the class again. For the rest of the hour, she focuses just enough to have a clue in case she gets called on again, but Jacob's left foot continuously nudging hers makes it hard to concentrate. Or perhaps it is his warm skin, his close proximity, his strong jaw, the way his biceps bulge as he crosses his arms, or... Bella shakes her head visibly to clear it, which only results in another round of silent laughter from Jacob.

She has a break before her next seminar, and she spends it arguing with Jacob about how distracting he is. Neither of them has any idea who wins the argument, but it ends when he presses her up against the side of the Union and kisses her silly. When he lowers her back to the ground, breathless and panting, she spies several students gawking at them, including the same student with the popped collar that Jacob chased off two days prior. Today his collar is smoothed down. Jacob nonchalantly takes her hand, turns around, and then gives a friendly smile and wave at the student. He mutters out of the corner of his mouth, "Still a douche," at the other man's back as he scurries away.

Her literature seminar isn't quite as easy for Jacob to follow as her statistics lecture, as he has never read the book they are discussing. Additionally, the balding sixty year old man who teaches the course isn't quite as easy to charm as Dr. Richards, so Jacob keeps his hands to himself for the duration. But it doesn't keep him from hooking his foot around her ankle in a substituted gesture of affection. The simple contact is enough to keep at bay the uncomfortable sensation of her aching hip, but still manages to distract her enough that she again misses a question asked of her by the professor. Thankfully, she could probably discuss _House of Mirth_ in her sleep, and she quickly recovers.

Afterward, she and Jacob bicker over who gets to pay for lunch. She wants to pay in order to thank him for driving her to Port Angeles, while he insists that he should buy her food since all he has actually accomplished is to distract her from each of her classes. She ends up stretching and arching her back, feigning soreness from sitting stiffly in classes all day long, so that he loses focus staring at her chest long enough that by the time he realizes what she has done, she has already paid the cashier for their meals. He accuses her of seducing him into becoming a kept man, she teases him about flirting with her statistics instructor, and they agree that each of them probably drops several IQ points in the other's presence.

Jacob doesn't even bother pretending to pay attention to her last class. He just draws patterns on her palm with his thumb and scribbles little hearts that say "J+B 4ever" in the margins of her syllabus until she giggles. By the end of the hour, he has earned them several glares from her Information Technology professor. She slips down behind her computer monitor to hide in embarrassment, but Jacob is too big to hide, not to mention he is not bothered in the least. As he gathers her things to carry out at the end of the day, he whispers in her ear, "So worth it."

"It's a good thing we didn't go to the same high school, Jake. I'd never have gotten anything done."

"Sure you would have," he disagrees. "You'd have done me all the time!" he snickers until she smacks him in the arm.

"What are you, twelve?" She frowns at him, but her laughter betrays her.

He tugs her into a little alcove in the side of the building, pressing himself against her. He has been trying to hide his low grade arousal for the duration of the day. "Does this feel like something that belongs to a twelve year old boy?"

Despite the general silliness of the situation, Bella finds herself responding to his touch. "Mmm. You're such a tease, Jacob Black."

He bends down to nip at her neck, and she shivers. "Tease? You can only call me a tease if I have no follow through. Come on." He backs away quickly, tugging her toward the library.

"What are you doing?" she giggles as she allows herself to be pulled along.

"Fulfilling a little fantasy. After Leah mentioned this the other day, I couldn't stop thinking about it."

Bella looks around them as he leads her through the building, thinking that everyone has to know what they are about to do. But even though she feels a dozen eyes on her, when she looks around, all she sees are students wrapped up in their own conversations or hunched over their own work. And when they reach the stacks, there are very few people around. With a wicked gleam in his eye, he pulls her into a small, empty room marked, "Tutoring". "C'mon. I've got something to teach you," he grins.

"Jacob," she sputters, "I don't think..."

"Shhh," he cuts her off. His voice drops to a low, seductive grumble. "I know you're not ready for me to push you up against the wall and take you. But I can still make you feel good."

"But these doors don't lock!" she protests.

"Here." He jams a chair underneath the door knob. "Now it does."

"But the window..." She points to the small opening in the door.

He backs her up against the wall just next to the door in the tiny room. "Then I guess you'd better not move. Nobody can see us from here. I'd have thought you'd be used to this by now, anyway. No one else in this building has a superpowered sense of hearing or anything," he chuckles. She blushes in response, and he groans a little bit. "God, you're so pretty."

He spreads his stance widely so that he is closer down to her level and presses his mouth against hers. His lips are full and soft and oh, so sweet. She is wholly unable to resist his touch, nor does she really want to. It has been a full two weeks since she really felt him inside her. He skims his hands down along her sides and up under her shirt, his fingers dragging against her skin so lightly that it almost tickles. He runs his calloused thumbs along the underwire of her bra. He pulls back far enough to whisper, "I want to taste your skin." When she whimpers instead of protesting, he grins seductively and takes his hands out of her shirt so that he can open the buttons one by one.

When he has her exposed, he opens the hot, large palm of his left hand over the small of her back, drawing her into an arch, as he kisses and licks a searing path down her chest. "Better than candy." His voice vibrates against her, and pleasure ripples outward.

She smiles and leans against the wall for support. "You feel so good. I've missed you," she admits.

"I'm gonna make it up to you. I promise." He flicks open the front clasp of her bra and buries his nose in her cleavage, nuzzling at the soft skin. He brushes his cheeks gently against her breasts. The contrast of his rough stubble alternating with the smooth skin across his cheekbones is delicious.

Then he kneels at her feet, snakes out his tongue to draw circles around her areola, and smiles as he feels it pebble under his tongue. She forgets that he has been apart from her for even a second. She loses her equilibrium, and would fall down if it weren't for the wall and his hand propping her up. "You can hold onto me," he whispers as he laps at her nipples. She braces her hands on his shoulders for support.

When he switches to gentle tugs with his teeth, she can't hold back a whimper. "God, Jacob."

"Yes, baby. Tell me how it feels." He kisses her nipple softly and sinks his fingers more deeply into the small of her back. She tries to bring him even closer by pulling him in by the hair on the base of his skull, but he just chuckles against her. The sensation of him laughing against her skin is frustrating and tantalizing all at once.

"G... Good," she stutters as he continues dropping butterfly kisses on her skin. "More, I want more."

"Like this?" He snakes his tongue out again to trace very lightly at his mark on her breast.

"Oooh, that's good, but please..." She is almost embarrassed at her reaction to him. But he thinks she looks wanton and sensual pressed between him and the wall in the barely private space.

"More?" He releases his hand from her back and snakes it around to brush his thumb over her other nipple, but the touch is still very, very light. It drives her insane. She arches her back further into him, but he simply leans backward to stay out of her reach. "Like this?"

"No, harder," she whimpers.

His cock aches at her words. He knows she is only talking about his tongue and fingers, and that she isn't ready to take him fully, but he can't help but wish she was saying those words with him buried deep inside her. Oh well. This will have to do. He pinches her nipple with his teeth on one side and between his thumb and forefinger with the other, and she jumps a bit in happy surprise. "Like that?" Then he licks gentle and agonizing circles again, and lightly draws the pads of his fingers over the other side while she writhes against the wall. He refuses to do anything differently until she asks for exactly what she wants.

"Please..." she begs brokenly. She can only think of the intensity of her want for him while he alternates between soft kisses and light caresses of his tongue.

"You're so soft," he murmurs.

"Mmmm, please, Jacob."

He removes his mouth entirely and pinches both nipples gently. "What?" He looks up at her with a falsely innocent expression.

"I want your mouth. I want your hands," she pleads.

"You have them," he answers in between kisses. "You have me."

She finally breaks. "Please, suck on my breasts. I need your fingers on my clit, in my pussy."

He growls in response and sucks her right nipple deep into his mouth, massaging with the flat of his tongue, then twists at her left nipple just the way she likes it until she shakes with a small orgasm. "Aahhh." She shudders against him as his cock pulses, constricted along his thigh.

He releases her with a little pop of his mouth. "Better?"

"No!" she chokes out and squirms her hips against nothing, trying in vain to relieve the pressure. Her small orgasm only left her wanting more. "I'm aching, Jacob. I need you." She is mortified at how needy she sounds.

He rests his forehead on her chest and pants, circling her ribs under her loose bra with his large hands and squeezing rhythmically. He knows just how badly she wants him, if the pressure in his dick is any indication. Normally he would strip off her pants, turn her around, and take her from behind. But her body is still healing and cannot accommodate such an intrusion. "You need me?" his voice cracks.

"I need you to touch me. I want it so bad."

He submits. He draws her right nipple back into his mouth with a groan and slides his right hand under the flexible waistband of her yoga pants and into her panties. She is slippery, smooth, and warm. "You're so fucking wet for me," he croons into her breast and inhales deeply of her scent.

"You make me crazy. I... Ooooh," she gasps as he finds her swollen clitoris with his middle finger, flicking it rapidly back and forth. Her knees buckle beneath her, so he steadies the grip of his other hand around her ribcage to pin her in place.

He slides his hand back to palm her, one long finger teasing the sensitive skin around her asshole gently. "God!" she cries out much louder than intended.

He laughs and groans at the same time and tugs his nimble finger back to her clitoris, swirling it round and round with tantalizing circles as she trembles above him. "You're so damn sexy. I love touching you."

She smiles and pants, "You're so good at it!"

And in return for her compliment, he rewards her by gently rolling her clitoris between his thumb and forefinger until she bucks against his hand in a stronger climax. "Fuck!" she gasps.

"You know I want to." He grins up at her, gazing up into her face. She looks stunning. Her flannel shirt and bra open and framing her flushed breasts for his hungry eyes, her thick hair tangled around her head, a little frown of pleasure crossing her face, her swollen, pink lips open and panting. All for him. "You know if I could, I would rip off these pants, pick you up by your ass and pin you to the wall. I'd fuck you so hard we'd make the walls shake. I'd bury my cock into your dripping pussy and drill you while you came all over me." He slides two thick fingers into her to illustrate, and she covers her mouth with her own hand to muffle her cry. She loves it when he talks to her this way, describes in lurid detail what he wants to do to her. His voice makes her almost as crazy as his touch. "I'd plunge into you, over and over, while you dripped those sweet juices all over me and the goddamn floor." He fingerfucks her as firmly as he can without destroying her panties, and she gasps and bites her own hand. "And I wouldn't stop, baby. Not if we scared away every student on this floor. Not if security came and knocked the damn door down." He switches from his deep but restricted thrusts, curling his fingers into her g spot, and she nearly collapses. Only his hands on her and in her keep her upright. "They could just watch you. See what a naughty girl you are, how you love to take my cock any way I'll give it to you."

She removes her hand from her mouth to tug at her own nipples, pleasure ricocheting throughout her body, from his words to his hands to the filthy things falling from his lips. She gasps and writhes on his fingers.

He grits his teeth. "And then when you couldn't take it any more, when your pussy was so raw that it couldn't take my cock anymore, I'd pull you off my dick, push you down on your knees and come down your throat," he growls and grinds the heel of his hand into her clitoris while he rubs furiously inside her.

Bella flies apart, bucking in his grip and wailing. If anyone is outside, they know exactly what is going on. But neither one of them can bring themselves to care. He works her methodically with his hand, stretching out her orgasm as long as possible. He doesn't let up until she is oversensitive and pushes him away.

She blinks hazily down at him with a silly grin on her face. "Damn. Okay. Now for that last part." She pulls him up by his shoulders until he is standing in front of her, and without preamble, she pops open the button on his jeans and lowers the fly. "It's my turn now." She reaches in to wrap her fingers around his length and bring him up and out of pants, then shoves them down enough that she can cup his heavy balls in her other hand.

She drops to her her knees. "Honey, you don't have to. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"That's why I'm doing this and not letting you fuck me against this wall," she answers. "Because I still need your cock in me somehow."

And he is so thankful that she does. He nearly exploded inside his pants just from touching her, and from the reflected sensations of her orgasms that he felt flowing through him. She keeps one hand still around his thick base, her fingers not quite meeting, while she rolls his balls gently. "Unhh..." he groans.

"Mmm," she hums, staring at the pearl of clear liquid at his tip. "You look so tasty." She takes a deep breath, and although she has no enhanced senses, his musky, male scent envelops her. She loves it. "And you smell so good." But she doesn't do anything else other than gently hold him still and fondle him.

At first he thinks she is just waiting for him to calm down, and she is, to an extent. But then he spots the wicked gleam in her eye and the smirk on her lips, and he realizes she is doing to him what he just did to her. She waits for him to tell her what he wants.

He thrusts his hips forward in her hand. "Jack me, Bella. Use those pretty little hands of yours."

She obliges happily, pumping up and down with her fist. But she avoids his sensitive head. "Like this?"

"You know what I want." His voice is altogether too steady for her liking. She wants him as desperate as she was. "Work the head." So she makes sure on every upstroke to twist her palm over the bulbous head, dragging precum over his shaft with each downstroke. Then for several strokes she pumps exclusively at the sensitive head, ignoring the shaft altogether, until he trembles. It is almost too much.

She looks up at him, staring at his beautiful face locked in a grimace of bliss, forehead leaning on his arm. Every prominent muscle in each of his strong arms is well defined as he braces himself against the wall above her. He looks sinful, but she wants to see more of him. "It's not fair. You got to see my breasts. I want to see you too," she pouts.

Jacob looks down at her with a grin and immediately whips his shirt off. It lands somewhere behind him. "Better?" he asks.

She rakes her eyes up and down his thickly muscled torso. "Much," she admits. "You look like a freaking porn star, Jacob."

He actually laughs at that. "Seriously?"

"This," she squeezes his dick, "definitely looks like it belongs on a male porn star. But the rest of you? Way too good looking. Plus this," she pumps at him firmly, "belongs to me. I'm not sharing."

His gaze shifts to something more serious and warm. "All of me belongs to you." But then the mischievous glint returns to his eye. "But if you think I look like a porn star, I can act like one too."

"Keep talking to me," she smiles wickedly. "You know how much I like it. But if you ever pull out right at the end and come all over my face, I'm going to have Leah help me cut this off." She tugs at him again for emphasis.

He snorts and stares down at her. She keeps working him with her hands. "How much porn have you watched, Bells?"

She blushes at that. "Not as much as you, I'm sure."

"But you liked some of what you saw?"

"I like it when you talk to me. Talk dirty to me," she whispers.

He complies happily. "Then lick my cock, Bella."

She moans and tips her head down to drag her tongue along his length like a massive ice cream cone. She swirls her tongue over the head with every upswing. She repeats the movement over and over, changing angles or tilting her head to draw gasps, moans, and groans out of him. She flicks her tongue rapidly over the dip in the crown where he is most sensitive.

Now it is his turn to use the wall to hold himself upright. "Unhhh. You're so good at that. Mmm... Now suck on my dick, baby. Open those sexy lips and suck on it."

She opens her jaw. It always aches a bit, he is so large, but he tastes so good. And even if she couldn't feel the ripples of his pleasure washing through her body, she is already addicted to the power she holds over him while doing this, and to the helpless sounds he always makes. She carefully wraps her lips around his large head in a kiss, then licks at his slit, drawing out the salty precum she loves so much, and lowers her head in earnest.

"God. God. Bells," he hisses. For now, she keeps her hands still, not wanting to take him over the edge too quickly. She keeps her lips wrapped around his crown and rapidly flicks her tongue over his head. She can feel him shaking above her. She peeks at his prominent abdominal muscles, and a new rush of arousal floods her panties. She was wrong. he doesn't look like a porn star. He looks like a sex god hovering over her.

"More," he grunts. "Take more of my cock."

She moans happily and bobs down until the entire head is seated firmly in her mouth. Then she suckles hard, hollowing out her cheeks.

"Fuck!" Her heart races in her chest, and she knows the rhythm is really his. He pulses in her hand.

When her focused attention becomes too much, he groans another instruction. "Your hands. On my shaft. Stroke my shaft."

And indeed, he is so large that even both her fists don't cover his entire length. She knows that if she takes him as far as she can go and uses both hands, it will all be over momentarily, but he hasn't asked to come yet. So she keeps suckling gently at his head, humming and relishing the salty flavor of him, and begins to pump lightly with both hands. He is already a little slick from the precum she dragged down over him, but she has an idea. She lowers one of her hands. "What are you..." But then he sees that she has dipped her hand into her own panties. She draws it out momentarily, and he groans aloud when she uses her own juices to further coat his shaft. "Damn!"

She pumps and licks and moans around him, but she keeps her pace slow and her grip gentle. She loves what she is doing and has no need for it to be over.

Jacob, however, isn't quite so patient. After guiding her through three climaxes, after two long weeks with only dream orgasms to satisfy him, he can't wait any longer. But he wants her to come with him. "Bella, Bella," he repeats her name over and over.

She thinks he is just chanting her name until she realizes he wants something more. She looks up at him, her lips still wrapped around his thick head, peering up at him with eyes that look much more innocent than they have any right to. He nearly comes apart just at the sight of her, gorgeous, half naked, kneeling at his feet, tasting him like she's starving and he is made of chocolate. "Shit," he whispers, and she chuckles around him. "I can't take much more. I want you to take my dick as far as you can. I want you to suck me off, and I want you to swallow every drop of my cum. And I want you to touch yourself with your other hand. Come with me," he commands.

She nearly melts into a puddle at his request. Eagerly, she pushes her hand back into her panties and rubs circles over her clitoris. He moans and bucks into her. He can feel it too. She obeys every instruction. She takes him in deeply, suppressing her gag reflex as best she can. She can't quite coordinate both actions and also pump with her hand in any coordinated fashion, but it doesn't matter. Jacob cannot stop himself from thrusting his hips into her welcoming mouth. "Unhh! I have to fuck your sweet mouth, baby. I have to fuck you!"

And he does. He grips the wall above her to stay vertical, and he pumps huge cock into her welcoming mouth. He barely restrains himself from choking her. He needs to see her. He needs to see her eyes to know her limits, and because it turns him on like nothing else. "Look at me!"

When she meets his eyes again, she is unable to look away. He looks positively feral. There is no mistaking it. Jacob is a wolf, an animal. His rich skin is covered in his sweat, and she is surrounded by the scent of him. She is overwhelmed by him. Her fingers fly over her clitoris frantically, and she pushes her own hips against her touch.

"Fuck!" he yells and thrusts his hips into her mouth. "Take it. Take it." His words are short, hard clips. She tightens her grip on his base and sucks hard. His balls tighten against his body, as her own passage begins to clench at nothing, while he grows impossibly stiff in her hand. "Aargh! Come with me! Fuck! Swallow it! Guhh! Fuck!"

And he explodes in her throat. He never breaks eye contact with her, and she is overcome. She comes and comes and comes against her own fingers. Her orgasm multiplies in strength as it feeds off of his, off of the crazed, ecstatic, animal look in his eye. She milks him with her tongue and greedily swallows, and still she does not look away. Gradually he shudders to a stop, and he slips out of her mouth.

Without pulling his pants up, he kneels before her and pulls her to him, his hands gently cradling her around her waist. He murmurs soft words into her hair as she wraps her arms around his neck. Eventually she realizes he is murmuring a mantra, "Love you, love you, love you."

And her sexual bliss turns into an overwhelming sensation of happiness rising through her body. "Love you too," she whispers.

A few minutes later, they make their way out of the little study room. Considering how loud Jacob was at the end, it is a miracle they weren't caught. At least, not by anyone who can get them in trouble. As they make their way out of the stacks, a giggling pair of girls stop their tittering to gawk at Jacob. Behind his back, Bella is horrified when one of them gives her a big grin and an enthusiastic thumbs up sign.

The ride home isn't quite so eventful. But Jacob does pull out his phone to call Leah on the way back. Depending on how the day went, he has high hopes to have Bella over to his house for dinner. He has been extremely cautious about letting her within a mile radius of Jasmine. But the other girl has gained some control as the week has gone by, is much more sensible in her human form, and he trusts Leah and Seth to keep her away.

Bella thinks Jacob's half of the conversation sounds cryptic, but he keeps turning and smiling at her reassuringly. When he finally hangs up, he asks her, "You work up an appetite? I know I did. Want to come over for dinner?"

She doesn't hesitate to say yes. Jacob's little red house feels like home more than any place on earth, Charlie's home or her old house in Phoenix included. He stops to pick up a huge basket of fresh greens at a roadside stand on the way back, and Bella calls Charlie to tell him not to go home after work.

She can't help but notice how he stiffens as soon as they pass the invisible treaty line. His eyes dart from side to side, and he slows the car down to the speed limit. A minute later, he picks up speed and narrows his eyes. She looks out the window, and though the trees gets the briefest glimpse of orange fur. "It's her, isn't it?"

Very quietly, Jacob answers, "It is. Seth's with her. We can go back to your house if you want."

"Is there really anything stopping her from following us there?"

"No. But I'll kill her before I let her hurt you again." They both know that he means it quite literally.

She knows that she probably ought to avoid the reservation for now. It has been less than a week since Jasmine mauled her. But she is homesick for his house and his garage. "Take me to your house."

He smiles softly at her and takes her hand. "The place is lonely without you. What I really want is to keep you in my bed all night long, but after the little shotgun thing your dad pulled last night, I don't see it happening."

They pull into Jacob's remodelled garage a few minutes later. Jacob stares intently into the forest behind them, but nothing appears except Billy rolling out of the house. He greets her with open arms, and she leans down for a hug. "Bella, my girl! I'm so glad you're here."

"You saw me yesterday!" she laughs.

"But the house hasn't seen you in forever. It wants you to come inside. And it wants your dad to bring beer."

"The house is thirsty, is it?"

"The dad is thirsty and the son is hungry."

She immediately makes her way into the kitchen. "Let me put something on the stove. What do you guys have to make?"

Jacob kisses her on the cheek and gives her a little squeeze around the middle before jogging out the back door. She looks out the window, but he quickly disappears into the trees. Billy leans into the refrigerator.

"Jacob didn't bring you over here to cook for us, Bella. We take advantage of your culinary skills often enough as it is. And if I know how to cook anything, it's this." He pulls a large salmon out of the refrigerator, already gutted and filleted. "The Chinook run just started. Pulled this out of the river today. And did I see you guys brought some greens? We can have a traditional Quileute meal." He shifted some items around the refrigerator. "With a little French vinaigrette on the side for variety, how does that sound?"

Billy teaches her how to make his dijon dressing while Bella tries not to think too hard about what Jacob is doing. Billy sees her distraction and asks gently, "What is it, dear?"

She furrows her brow and stares intently at the whisk in her hand. "It's just that she's..." she trails off, unsure if she ought to voice her concerns to Billy. She loves him like a second father, but this a conversation she can barely have with Leah, let alone Jacob's father.

Billy, of course, knows her nearly as well as his own children, and he has spoken with Charlie about the effect the imprint is having on her. "You mean, how is it that he's with you and not with her?"

Her face crumples. "Yeah. Exactly. Your ancestors, the universe, they all point at her. How is anyone okay with him being with me?"

He smiles warmly at her. "The universe isn't always good at making decisions, but Jacob seems to be, and I think we all know what he wants."

"It doesn't bother you that he's rejecting his chosen mate?"

"A couple things. First, I'm a father first and an elder second. And you make my boy happy. How do I argue with that? Second, I've known Charlie Swan basically my whole life. You're family. Third, yes, chaos surrounds you." She is appalled until she looks into his smiling face. He is teasing her. "But it wasn't your fault the Cullens came back here. The boys would have phased whether or not you were here or moved with your mother to Florida. And the fact that Edward Cullen chose to stalk you was never your fault. So as much as I wish that my children got to live boring, average lives, it was never up to you whether they would. And both the elder in me, and the father in me, is so, so proud of what my son is growing into. My son is the first spirit chief in hundreds of years, and that, my dear, is because of you." He pats her hand. "So don't you go questioning if some girl with a crush is better for him than you are. I know better, and so does he."

Bella relaxes then, and continues dinner preparations with Billy. But her good mood reverses when Jacob enters the back door about twenty minutes later. He has mud across nearly every inch of exposed skin and a scowl on his face. He is so dirty that she can't tell if he has any kind of injuries under the filth, but a red tint to the mud suggests that he does. "Don't worry, everything's okay. I'm gonna hit the shower, get changed so I don't make a mess."

"What happened?" she asks, but he is already gone.

Billy looks at her reassuringly. "Kid's built like a Mack truck. Don't worry about him. He'll tell us after he cleans up."

Bella does nothing but worry and look out the back window for the five minutes Jacob is gone, wondering if and when an orange wolf is going to knock down the back door. When he returns, he is fully clothed. "What happened?"

He shrugs it off. "She hasn't been apart from me for so long before." And under his breath, so Billy doesn't hear, continues, "And she didn't like the way I smelled."

"So she attacked you?" she asked incredulously, her mind spinning. It takes her several beats to realize exactly what he means. Jasmine must have smelled Bella on him. "She attacked her own Alpha?"

"Attack is the wrong word."

Billy turns toward them. "Did she accidentally phase again?"

"No, she was already phased. She sort of half-tackled, half-hugged me and forgot she's a giant animal."

Billy sighs. "So she's not ready for a party in her honor then, is what you're telling me?"

Jacob turns to Bella. "Paul suggested we have a welcome bonfire for her. We were thinking tomorrow. But she's not really ready to be around anybody other than wolves right now. No imprints, elders, humans."

"So the bonfire is off, then?"

He grins at her. "Nah. Seth wants to show off his new powers, and he wants to show you specifically. It's a good excuse for a party. She just won't be allowed anywhere near the humans."

Charlie shows up then, and Billy's eyes light up when he sees a six pack of Schooner's seasonal microbrew in his old friend's hand. Jacob fires up the grill and prepares their salmon, Bella tucked protectively against him. She startles when she sees movement in the trees, but it is only Seth's sandy wolf. Bella teases him, "Begging for scraps?" and laughs when he barks and wags his tail at her. She retrieves two more fresh fishes from the refrigerator at Billy's prompting, and Jacob adds it to the fire. When the food is finished, he serves half to the family and places the other in a large baking dish.

Seth appears in human form to retrieve it. "Thanks, man. We've been stuck out here all day. Haven't eaten since breakfast."

"How's it going now?" Jacob asks quietly.

Seth lowers his voice, but Bella is still able to hear. "She feels terrible. She wants to apologize again."

Jacob sighs heavily and stares into the woods. Bella can't see anything, but she is certain he is looking at Jasmine, and her suspicions that Jasmine hurt Jacob in some way are confirmed. "No apologies needed." His voice is quiet, but the female wolf can hear him perfectly. "It's just a scratch. I'll be fine."

"Not to you, or not just to you," Leah materializes in the backyard.

Jacob moves to stand protectively in front of Bella and snarls, "She's not coming anywhere near Bella. Over my dead body."

She puts her hand on his arm, peeking around him. His body vibrates with tension, but she has no fear whatsoever of him transforming into his wolf. She is his mate, and he will protect her at all costs.

Leah looks behind her. "You know we won't put Bella in harm's way, not with all three of us here. It's important to her."

Bella squeezes his arm. "It's okay, Jacob. You won't let her hurt me, I know you won't."

He frowns at her over his shoulder. "I need you safe, honey."

"You'll keep me safe, then."

His frown fades into a reluctant smile. "Flattery will get you everywhere, apparently."

"It's not flattery. It's the truth."

He turns to pull her in for a gentle hug, shielding her entirely from the eyes peering at her from the woods. Then he releases her and faces the forest again, but he keeps her hidden with his own body. "Okay, you can come out now."

Bella peeks around Jacob. She almost doesn't recognize Jasmine. The girl's thick, flowing hair has been shorn into bob, a surprisingly flattering style that frames her face nicely. Bella suspects this must be due to Leah's influence. Jasmine is obviously taller than when she saw her last, although not as tall as Leah. She wears a sundress that shows off the now-defined musculature of her arms. She has lost some of her softness, but she is still every bit as lovely as she ever was. But what Bella really notices are her eyes. The bright green orbs are locked on Jacob, and she looks impossibly sad. Bella almost feels bad for her.

Jasmine clearly has to struggle to take her eyes of Jacob, who has crouched down just a little in front of Bella and is holding her firmly behind him. He is obviously prepared to leap out and defend her if need be. Jasmine clears her throat and makes eye contact with Bella. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." Her voice is surprisingly quiet and high pitched.

Bella tries to move out from behind Jacob. He tightens his hold on her wrists and shakes his head. "No, Bells."

She firmly removes his hand from her wrists. "We can't have a conversation like this. I can't even see past you. But I'm not going anywhere." She slips her hand into his and steps forward so she is just a little bit in front of him. But she doesn't want to let him go, not around the woman who would make herself a rival, although she is deeply reassured that he doesn't want to let her go either. She faces Jasmine. "It's okay. I'll be fine. I hurt myself all the time, it's really no big deal."

"Of course it is! I just... I hope I didn't do any permanent damage?"

Bella shakes her head. "Rose doesn't think I'll have a limp or anything. Just a little scar."

"I'm so sorry about it, and about the scar. I promise, I'll never do anything like that again. I'm working on getting myself under control. I'm not very good yet."

Bella tries to keep her voice warm. She remembers just how terrified Jacob was of hurting her when he first phased. "You'll get better. Everyone does."

Jasmine can't keep her eyes off Jacob any longer. Her next words might be directed at him, at Bella, or at herself. "Thanks. I, uh... I know you're really uncomfortable about me, about us." Her words sound strangled. "I get it. I get that you love each other. I'm not going to get in the way. I just..."

Bella finishes for her. "You need to be around him. I understand, believe me. He brings happiness with him, doesn't he? I need to be around him too, just not in the same way."

Jasmine's next words are so quiet that Bella barely hears them. She sounds heartbroken. "But mostly, he needs to be around you."

Jacob finally relaxes, just slightly. "I do. Not like an imprint, but I need her all the same."

Jasmine gives them a smile that doesn't reach her eyes, and Leah and Seth lead her away. As soon as she is out of view, Jacob crushes Bella to his chest. "I do, you know. I don't need you so that I can breathe, like Sam and Emily or Jared and Kim. I need you to remind me who I really am."

She stretches up on her tiptoes and throws her arms around his neck, whispering, "I won't let you forget who you are, Jacob, you're the love of my life and the man of my dreams."

Jacob's smile stretches wide across his face and lights up his dark eyes. He lowers his lips to hers, and as they kiss, they lose themselves in each other and do not notice the mournful howl fading into the night sky.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: As always, thanks to my beta, Babs81410 at JBNP.


	31. Chapter 30

X-x-x-x-X  
March 30  
X-x-x-x-X

Charlie looks skeptically out the kitchen window. "Are you sure it's still on for tonight? The forecast said it's supposed to rain for the entire weekend." And indeed, the sky is a solid gray, with no break in the clouds on the horizon. Drizzle taps steadily against the pane.

Bella shrugs. "Seth says he can take care of it. We'll see if he's exaggerating, I guess."

"I feel boring. How come everybody gets a superpower except us?" He stirs the brownie batter she handed to him without really looking at it. Several drops land on the table, and she wonders if it would be more efficient to do this herself instead of having him help.

"What superpower would you want?"

Charlie answers quickly, "Invisibility could be pretty handy on the job, or for spying on my teenage daughter, but if I could only pick one, it would have to be flying."

"You sound like you've thought this through already."

"You might not realize this, Bells, but it turns out that stakeouts and waiting for traffic violations are not that interesting. When I've got one of the guys in the cruiser with me, we've got to talk about something. And we're manly men, you know, so it's not likely to be some girly conversation about feelings or knitting."

Bella snorts at that. "What would I talk about with the girls about if we couldn't talk about knitting?" she jokes.

"Not a clue. Talking about the Mariners or Seahawks can easily fill seven or so hours, but the eighth hour? Not always. The superpower discussion has happened more than once."

"How long have you been stirring that, dad?"

"Huh?" He looks down and sheepishly notices the mess of brown goo splattered around the bowl. "Oh. Is it ready to go into the pan?"

"Here." She hands him three trays. "Split it evenly between these."

"It's nice to be contributing a bit to a bonfire for once. Billy has been inviting me for years, although not to the more private tribal ones. I make sure to bring beer, but after seeing what those boys eat, I feel like I should just bring an entire cow or something."

"I'll bet Billy's pretty happy to get the beer."

"Yeah, but we can get that anywhere. That mac and cheese will go over great, I bet. Leave a bit in the fridge for us for later, would you?"

"Too bad it's a heart attack on a plate." She starts to pull the huge pot of pasta off the stove, but Charlie stops her.

"You're going to end up with third degree burns if you try to maneuver that thing to the sink. Let me."

For the next hour, Bella shows Charlie how to make smoked sausage macaroni and cheese, spinach and artichoke dip, a huge fruit salad, and three trays of brownies. They load up the cruiser, trying to protect the food from the falling rain, and he continues to frown at the sky. When they reach the Clearwater house, they leave the food in the car to protect it from getting soaked.

Sue greets them at the door with a wide smile. The house is empty behind her.

Charlie asks her, "Sue, you sure about this? Should we move it into the tribal center?"

"The boys say they've got it under control. We'll see."

"Are we going to wait for it to clear up?"

"What time is it, 3:00? We can head over now."

Bella had been hoping that Jacob would materialize, or at least Seth or Leah, but no one does. "Are they there already?" she asks.

"Should be. They've been gone for hours."

"I don't want to intrude," Bella says hesitantly. Jacob had left her bed early in the morning. The pack planned to meet Billy and Old Quil before the larger bonfire for a smaller initiation ceremony for Jasmine. Paul and Quil had originally suggested that they have a larger celebration for her, a party to include the imprints and families, but after she had accidentally clawed Jacob the day before, they had all decided she ought to keep her distance for the time being. But Seth convinced Jacob not to cancel the get-together, stating that she needed to feel accepted into the pack. Seth took responsibility for keeping her a safe distance from any vulnerable humans, as she could not be trusted to stay in control.

Sue looked at her daughter's friend warmly. "You're not intruding, Bella. Seth wants to show off to you as much as to anyone else." Charlie carries Sue's casserole dishes to the cruiser, and five minutes later, they pull into the parking lot for First Beach.

Bella looks over her shoulder. The rain behind them looks like a curtain that ends at the road. The entire visible stretch of sand is dry despite the rainfall they have experienced since the early hours of the morning. It appears that Seth has been clearing the sky above the beach for hours. Charlie mutters, "Damn, that's kind of freaky," but dutifully carries food to the picnic tables on the beach.

A few hundred yards away, a bonfire is already raging. Bella spots a figure waving at them before bending over to someone stretched out on the ground. She recognizes Paul and Seth. Behind them, the tallest, broadest member of the pack lies down. "What is Jacob doing?" she asks Sue. Why hasn't he run over to greet her?

She gets her answer moments later when she sees his transparent spirit grinning at her from a spot several feet above her head. He winks at her, and she waves at him with a small laugh.

"What are you doing?" her father asks.

She points at Jacob's spirit. "Don't you see him?"

"See who?" he raises his eyebrows.

But they are both distracted when a raincloud materializes in the air just a few miles over the ocean, and a rainbow appears in the sky. Bella breaks out into a jog toward the pack, laughing. She stumbles three times before she reaches them, garnering good natured chuckles from her friends. By the time she reaches them, the small rain cloud is gone, and Jacob is kissing her.

"Did you just make me a rainbow?"

"Yeah," he admits sheepishly. His ears are bright red. "Was that a little over the top?"

Behind him, Paul snorts. "You're such a girl. So much for the big, bad wolf."

"He's just a big, lovable puppy." Bella squeezes Jacob around the waist. "That was maybe the most romantic thing that's ever happened to me. Thank you." She looks around, waving to Kim who is seated on a log with Jared. Collin and Brady toss a frisbee along the shore. Quil's and Sam's mothers are leaning together with the Littleseas, probably gossiping about their sons. Tiffany Call stands slightly off to the side, staring over the ocean and wrapping her arms around her middle. Bella catches Jacob's eye and nods her head toward Sam. He is lighting the grill while Emily arranges food on the picnic tables. But his eyes aren't on his imprint or on the grill in front of him. He stares up the beach, where a small clutch of figures sit in the sand, and Jacob's glance follows Sam's. Jasmine, Embry, Quil, and Leah are all letting the cold ocean water lap at their feet. Bella doesn't notice that Jasmine turns deliberately away from them as soon as she sees Jacob glaring at her.

But all of them notice when Quil emits a high pitched yelp, massaging a bright red bruise on his arm. Leah is yelling loudly enough for even Bella to hear, "If you ever mention that again, you perv, I'll rip off your fingers and your lips with my bare hands so you can't ever try anything like it!"

Jacob sputters with laughter. Confused, Bella asks, "What was that all about?"

"Um, I might have let on what happened between Leah and that girl from school, and, uh, Quil might have just said something about it."

"Hey, you weren't supposed to say anything to anyone! Now she's gonna kill me!" Bella protests and smacks his arm, drawing the attention of those around them.

He puts his hands up defensively. "Not my fault. You can't tell me things like that and then expect I'll never think about them again. I didn't say anything, but you know the pack mind. You shouldn't have told me in the first place!"

"Told him what?" Emily asks guilelessly. Beside her, Sam frowns deeply.

"Oh, nothing, Em," Jacob refuses to answer. But it doesn't really help the building tension in Sam, nor Emily's confusion. Sam's eyes keep flicking between Leah and the grill in front of him. For once, he isn't looking at Emily.

Bella can't see as well as the wolves, but she is fairly certain Leah is now smiling. She has stopped hitting Quil. He kneels down and appears to be pretending to kiss her feet, which causes her to dissolve in giggles. His head somehow ends up in her lap. Bella can't remember the last time Leah looked so relaxed at a pack event. "She looks good," Bella murmurs.

Jacob misunderstands and shrugs noncommittally, thinking Bella is looking at Jasmine. He murmurs, "She's not coming any closer."

"Oh, uh, not her. Well, her too," Bella stutters. "But I feel bad for her stuck all the way over there." She is surprised to find out that she is telling the truth. It was only a few days ago that she was terrified that Jasmine would take Jacob away from her. But with him here, solid under her hands, looking down at her with concern and devotion in his eyes, it is difficult to be jealous of a girl he can barely stand to look at. Jasmine, on the other hand, holds herself rigidly still, but relaxes visibly when Leah playfully pushes Quil off her and he tips over against Jasmine.

"She's lucky she's here at all. There are too many people here who could get hurt. What happened yesterday was no big deal for me, but it could have killed a human. She's not stuck on the outside forever, and we didn't send her home alone for a reason. I don't want to be cruel."

"How'd the ceremony go?"

Jacob settles into the sand and pulls Bella to sit between his legs. "Paul was right. I think it helped her. I was surprised, but she really wanted the tattoo. But she wasn't up for getting it done the traditional way. Old Quil modified it a bit for her."

"What do you mean?" She cranes her neck around to look at him.

"Well, the old method is to make a superficial cut in the skin and rub in the pigment. The borders get done that way. Then the rest is filled in with a sharpened bone needle. A tattoo never feels good, you know? But that one's even worse. It freaked her out when she heard about it, so he used a regular tattoo machine. And hers is much smaller. I think she likes it, though. She says it suits her. It's on the back of her shoulder, not her upper arm."

Bella settles back into his chest, and he runs his hands up and down her arms. "Was everybody there?"

"Yeah. Seth held her hand when she got it done. And he apparently found this necklace that snapped off when she phased for the first time. It was outside his house, in the yard. He surprised her with it, gave it back to her right after she got the tattoo. She was pretty excited to get it back. And Quil put the pendant on a really long chain so it might not pop off when she phases."

"That was sweet of them," Bella smiles.

Jacob nods. "She thought so too. She said something like she was feeling like she was less of a girl after phasing. Said the jewelry made her feel more normal."

"At least she's not the only girl, like Leah was for so long. You guys are such brutes," she jokes.

Jacob kisses the top of her head and looks over the ocean. "We certainly didn't know how to handle Leah, that's for sure. She made sure it wasn't quite so awful for Jasmine. She got Em and Kim to go get some new clothes for Jasmine. She doesn't fit into some of her old stuff, I guess, since she's a little taller now. And she didn't have much that she could tie on to phase with. The girls took care of all that stuff, and even wrapped it all up to give her today. Jasmine said she felt like she got some kind of fucked up baby shower or something."

"That sounds nice. Especially compared to the past week."

"It was. If you'd have left it up to me, she'd probably still be running around the rez in wolf form."

Bella shakes her head. "That's not true. You're the one who got her calm enough to phase back in the first place."

He tightens his grip around her. "It wasn't my idea, though. It was yours."

"Okay, I'll take the credit," she jokes.

"It's yours," he smiles. "If any of this has gone smoothly at all, it's because of everybody else. Paul, Seth, Quil, Leah," he lowers his voice and whispers, "and you. And having Leah cut her hair yesterday was way better than what happened with Leah."

"What was that?" Bella has never heard any details about Leah's transformation. She knows that it was on the day Harry died, and that sharing the pack mind with Sam was some sort of disaster, but no more.

Jacob sighs heavily. "Sam ordered her to chop it off. I'm not sure if he meant for it to be an Alpha order, but it was. She had been arguing with him, and she really pushed his buttons. Said something about him wanting to make her hair into extensions for Emily. It was pretty nasty, because she was pissed, and you know how he gets about Em. So when he yelled back to get her to shut up and chop off her hair, it came out as an order. She went at it right then and there with Emily's kitchen shears. Right in the middle of his living room. It was in front of the pack. It was brutal. She was trying not to cry, you could tell. Didn't use a mirror or anything. And it had been long, thick, all the way down to her waist. I thought she was gonna stab him with the shears after, but she just stormed out and left all the hair in a pile on the carpet. And she didn't get a choice about the tattoo. That was earlier the same day. We didn't hold her down or anything. Since it was another order, she couldn't move."

Jasmine can't hear them from her distance, but Sam can. Bella peeks at him. He freezes at Jacob's words, and he looks positively nauseated.

"What about Jasmine?"

"I didn't order her to cut her hair, just told her how much more comfortable she'd be if she did. Seth showed her in the pack mind what she looked like, how shaggy she was, with long hair. She didn't even hesitate. Leah did the cut at their house yesterday."

"It looks good," she admits.

"I hope it was easier on her than it was on me," Leah says quietly from behind them. Bella had not noticed, but Leah had stepped up behind them. "Take a walk with me?"

"Sure, of course." Bella stands and peeks around his shoulder, gripping it tightly. Jasmine is sitting in her original spot staring stoically at the ocean, but she appears to be trembling slightly. Bella resists the urge to pull Jacob down for a possessive, open-mouthed and highly inappropriate kiss, but he, as usual, can read her like a book.

He smirks at her. "Trying to decide if it's worth poking the bear? Or the wolf, as it were?"

She looks chagrined and settles for lowering her hand to tightly squeeze his hand and step up on her tiptoes for a small kiss. "You want to go make sure she's okay?"

He grins down at her. "I should. You're the best, Bells." And she is glad she did the right thing.

She and Leah wander south along the beach until they are out of hearing range. "Sorry," Bella begins. "I didn't mean to pry. And I'm sorry I told Jacob and you and Jamie."

"It's okay. I'm used to it, pack mind and all. And I know all your dirty little secrets, you know mine. Most of them, anyway."

"And the pack knows everything. That has to be one of the worst parts. I'm so grateful that Edward could never read my mind."

"Well, if Quil ever makes another threesome joke about me, he really is going to lose a body part." Leah laughs, but there is no real amusement in her voice. After a pause, she says quietly, "They don't know everything. And I'd like to keep it that way."

"How's that? How do you hide things from them? If I ever try not to think about something, all I do is end up thinking about it more."

"That's why I learned to say the worst things I could think of. I couldn't figure out how else to keep them out if my brain. It was because of that night, actually."

"When you got the tattoo and cut your hair?"

Leah nods somberly. "It was probably supposed to be a welcoming experience or something, the tattoo anyway. But it wasn't."

"What was it like?"

"Horrifying. Painful. Old Quil did it right before he did Seth's. Just like he did everybody else's. Mine didn't hurt worse than anybody else's, of course, but I didn't take it the same way the guys did. It was supposed to be a bonding ritual, you know? Make me feel like I belonged."

"You didn't feel that way?"

"How could I? It was the day after my dad's funeral. Maybe it would have been okay if I was numb with grief, but I wasn't. I could barely hold it together. I don't think they saw, not on my face, but on the inside I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I was so horrified about being a wolf, losing all control over my body and my mind, and so upset about my dad."

"Why'd they make you do it right then?"

"I don't know. Like I said, they wanted us to feel like we were part of the pack, I guess. But it was different for them. They all wanted to show how stoic they were when they got theirs. I could see it in their brains. It made them feel all manly and grown up, you know? But I didn't exactly want to be manly. I had never felt less feminine, less pretty, less attractive than I did that night. Plus I never wanted a tattoo before. It was like adding injury to insult. Physical pain to pile on top of the psychological pain. I hated it."

"I'm sorry." Bella doesn't know what else to say.

"Me too. I wasn't about to let on as to how bad it hurt, of course. Seth was going to get his right after me, and I didn't want him to worry about how bad it felt. But it felt savage. He did it the old fashioned way, you know?"

"Jake told me. He cut you?"

"Sliced into my arm with a sharp little knife and rubbed ink in it for the edging, then used a pointed bone needle dipped in ink for the rest. Hurt like a motherfucker. But I refused to cry in front of any of them. But Bella, I wanted to. I really did. But I flinched."

"That's sort of to be expected, isn't it?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? Sam ordered me to stay still after that. I don't know if it was supposed to be an Alpha order, but it was. So then I couldn't move at all. And that was terrifying, not being able to get away if I wanted to. To this day, I don't think any of them know just how much I hated getting it done, how painful I thought it was. But Jacob wasn't nearly so rough on Jasmine today. He left it all up to her. So she got a much smaller one back here." She points to her shoulderblade.

"Do you think it felt to her like your supposed to feel? Like it makes her an official member of the pack, makes her feel more accepted?"

"Yeah. What with Jacob rejecting her imprint, she sort of felt like an outcast, I think. She was pretty excited about it, actually. And apparently she likes tattoos, so that helps."

"But not you."

"I never wanted one. But in the grand scheme of things, it's such a little thing. I know that, and I feel stupid for hating it. Everything else around it was so much worse. But to me, when I see it, it's just a reminder of the worst time in my life, permanently etched onto my skin. Even if I can stop phasing, move away, never see a single member of the pack again, it's going to be there until I die."

"I understand what you mean." Bella extends her wrists, permanently marred with twin bites from James and Edward. Leah nods at her somberly before giving her a small smile and fingering the bracelet she wears over one scar, the woven leather that Jacob made for her with its sun and wolf charms. Bella lowers her hands and asks, "What happened after?"

"We went to Sam's house for a meeting. Which, like, seriously? Did we have to go there? I had been avoiding their house like the plague. I mean, that was supposed to be my house, Bella. Sam bought it for me. I picked out half the furniture in the living room. Couldn't he have met me by ourselves, or at Billy's or the tribal center or something? I guess he thought that once I knew why he left me, maybe we'd be okay. Maybe I could be friends with Em again when I saw it wasn't their fault."

"Only now you know it really was."

"Yeah. But knowing or not, fault or not, it was stupid of him to think I'd want to be in their little love nest. But that's where I got the idea about the scissors."

"The scissors?" Bella is afraid to ask.

"I saw that even though the tattoo hurt like hell, it didn't bleed or get all red nearly as much as I expected. It was agonizing, but healed so damn fast. And they'd told me about the super accelerated healing. I was so upset after I left Sam's house that night, my head a fucking rat's nest from hacking it all off when he ordered me to. I was yanking at the little hair I had left. And crying by then, since I was finally alone. I caught sight of the tattoo when I moved my arm and thought about what they said about the fast healing. It just clicked."

"What do you mean?" Bella is horrified as understanding dawns.

Leah's voice is thick. "I wasn't trying to kill myself, I swear. And it wasn't some teenybopper cutting bullshit. It wasn't about hurting myself to make the pain of my body match the pain in my soul, or some emo attempt at letting out the pain. But I still had the shears in my hand when I ran out of Sam's place. I was looking at them in my hand and looking at the tattoo on my arm. I had this morbid desire to see what my new body could take. And the past few days had been this waking nightmare between killing my own father, watching my mom scream when she saw me, the look of terror on her face. But that wasn't anything compared to what she looked like when she realized what was happening to him. Or his expression when he saw what I had turned into. I just... I can't..."

"You don't have to." Bella reaches out her arm to touch Leah's hand, but Leah doesn't even notice, lost in her memories.

"...and seeing in Sam's brain and his fucked up feelings for Em, watching his memories of making love to her when I could still see him remembering making love to me, having my every last thought on display for a bunch of guys who thought I was a freak among freaks, my body betraying me, realizing I wasn't going to go to college like I thought, but just being trapped with Sam, of all people, having absolute power over me. He says jump, and I can't even ask how high before I obey. So fucked up. I couldn't believe it had happened. I couldn't imagine a nightmare worse than that. I remember thinking I must have lost my mind, or been asleep, and how could I wake up? If you pinch yourself, you wake up, right? Well, I needed something stronger than that. I didn't believe it was real, and I had to do something to wake up. So I used the scissors on myself. I figured either I'd wake up then, and the nightmare would be over, or I'd heal it fast, no harm, no foul."

Bella wants to cry for her friend. "Where did you cut?"

Leah points to her wrist. "Right here. The radial artery." She draws up the length of her forearm, halfway to her elbow.

"Leah, you could have died! Werewolf healing or no, if you open it up all that way? You'd have bled out in minutes! How did you survive?"

"I wasn't trying to kill myself, Bella, it wasn't that well thought out. I wasn't thinking straight. Even if I'd have wanted to open a nice, neat line all the way up the artery, I couldn't have done it with that blunt pair of scissors. I sort of hacked my arm to pieces, but I healed up. Although I did lose a lot of blood. Felt like shit during and after, and I was no better off. The nightmare didn't end, I didn't wake up. So I never did it again. But I immediately realized all the guys would see what I had done, and I couldn't have that. It wasn't a cry for help. I didn't want their help or their pity. It was none of their business. And I already had Sam's pity, and I'd rather have his hate instead of more of that. Plus it would have killed Seth to know what I had done. So I did the only thing I could think of to keep them out of my brain."

"You said nasty things."

"Yeah. Sam basically saw red when I made the crack about my leftover hair. I said he wanted to shave me bald, take the hair, and give it to Em so she could make a huge wig to hide behind so no one would see the scars he gave her. At that, he stopped pitying me, if only for a second, and just despised me. And that was the best I was going to get from him. So I said things like that as much as possible to keep them all hating me. It was fine for them to hate me. After what I did to my father? I deserved nothing better."

"No, no," Bella insists, but Leah isn't listening.

"I had to keep them from knowing that I'd sliced up my arm, keep Sam from seeing how much I still loved him, how badly it hurt to see him with Em. If I filled the pack mind with the worst things I could think of, then they wouldn't poke around my brain, and I could have what little peace I could find, besides death."

Bella realizes belatedly that she is crying. But Leah isn't. She just looks sad. "Did you think about it?"

"Killing myself? Yeah. In those first few days after my dad was gone. It was hard not to. An eye for an eye. I killed him, so I deserved it." Bella shakes her head and wipes tears from her face, but Leah just presses on. "Plus, part of the reason I felt so damn helpless was because I couldn't envision anything other than being stuck here, watching Emily live the life I thought was mine, forever. I mean, before I phased, I was getting over Sam like a normal person. I was brokenhearted and angry, sure, that both of them left me in the dust, but it's not like I was the first girl to ever get dumped. Even for her best friend. Which I so did not see coming, by the way. I wasn't naive enough to think that his promise to be mine forever, or the ring he put on my finger, was a hundred percent guarantee. But not once in a million years did I think she would ever pick a guy over me, let alone my fiancé. But even then, it wasn't until I was stuck in his brain, him stuck in mine, that it felt like hell. Not until I found out that the spirits deemed me unworthy of him, that I simply wasn't good enough to be his imprint."

Bella interrupts her. "You know that's not what imprinting's about, Leah. It was never about you not being good enough. If anything, he's not good enough for you. And I think we can say pretty confidently that she's not his soulmate. She's his... his..." Bella searches for the right words. "His actual ball and chain."

Leah shakes her head. "I know that now, but that's not exactly how it was presented at the time. But that wasn't the worst part. Not by a long shot. It was just a little bonus 'fuck you' from the universe to me. I can get over Emily. I can get over Sam. I was getting over him. I am getting over him. First loves aren't last loves. Maybe he was the love of my life, maybe not. I can fall in love again. But getting over my dad? That's something else entirely. I know children lose their parents and not the other way around. But most children don't kill their parents. You aren't even supposed to get over that."

Bella finally stands directly in front of Leah to force her to pay attention. "You didn't kill him, Leah."

"Bullshit. I did. There's no getting around it. It wasn't murder, no, but I'm the reason he's dead. And I knew it as soon as I figured out what happened. People kept saying he was in a better place. So I thought, I'd like to go to a better place too. Go be with him instead of stay trapped in this hellhole." Her voice drops so far Bella can hardly hear her. "I thought about jumping off the cliffs. I'd have to tie myself down somehow so I could drown. Couldn't count on injuring myself enough to die. I thought about where the hunting rifle was. Thought about where the bullets were locked up, whether dad had any tools that I could use to saw off the end so I could eat it. I figured if I wanted to do it, that was the only way. Cutting my wrists, even if I did a better job of it, wasn't exactly a surefire way to go. Pills would be pointless. I'd already tried a few shots of vodka and realized it was about as interesting as a glass of warm milk. But a bullet to the brainstem? That had a chance, and I knew it. But that's as far as it got."

"I think I would have gone farther if I was in your shoes," Bella admits, thinking of her own leap off the cliffs. Thank God she had Jacob to save her. Leah had no one but herself.

Leah shakes her head. "No. If it weren't for mom and Seth, maybe I would have seriously contemplated killing myself. But I wasn't about to put them through any more grief than they already suffered."

"Does Seth know?" Bella asks quietly.

"No. That's what all the general bitchiness was all about, remember? That's what I won't let any of them see. They can't know how weak I was. How low I fell. And please don't tell them."

"Of course! I won't say anything to anyone. Not Jacob, not anyone."

"Thanks."

"Have you ever talked to anyone about it?"

"Yeah, you," Leah answers sardonically. "Who would I tell? I had already lost Emily. I lost the rest of my friends that night. Sam ordered me to stay away from them for their own safety. And even if he hadn't, what would I have told them?"

Bella shakes her head. "At least you could have had a good cryfest with some girlfriends. Sob about your dad, bitch and yell about your asshole ex who had shacked up with your so-called best friend. You might not have been able to tell them the whole truth, but I bet it would have helped to be able to talk to somebody."

"That's why I helped out Jasmine the past couple days," Leah nods. "The wolf? It's a curse. Phasing for the first time? Agonizing pain. Imprinting on a man who can't stand the sight of you? Hurts so much worse. And having him read your mind and only be horrified by what he sees? Crushing. I figure I can help her out, plus I'm perfectly happy to put her in her place if she makes eyes at Jacob. It doesn't do her any good to think he's going to change his mind and fall for her at some point."

Bella looks at Leah, realizing that the dark mood of memory that washed over her is now gone. Leah doesn't want a hug or a shoulder to cry on. She just needed someone to listen, and now she wants to move on. So Bella scowls at her in an exaggerated fashion. "Are you asking me to have sympathy for the woman trying to steal my man?"

"Well, when you put it that way," Leah chuckles, grateful that Bella isn't going to smother her with sympathy, but relieved to have finally told her side of the story in her own words.

Bella smiles. "No, I'm just kidding. I do feel bad for her. Not enough to hand over Jacob, of course."

Leah grins back. "You couldn't give Jacob away if you tried! When it comes to you, he's not a wolf. He's a barnacle!"

And the tension is broken. Bella examines Leah. Her expression is melancholy, yes, but she has a genuine smile on her face nonetheless. All the pain she revealed tonight is in the past, as much as it can be, and she has an entirely different future to look forward to. "I think you may have acquired a barnacle of your own," she teases.

Leah turns around, and they slowly start to make their way back to the group. They are so far down the beach that the bonfire is barely visible. "It never occurred to me that there would be anyone outside the pack that I could be open with. Let alone that someone might accept me if I told them. I figured the best I could hope for was that I'd be able to stop phasing and not look back."

"Saving his life and the life of his baby might have put a bit of a positive spin on your wolf, you know."

"You think?" Leah grins. "I like him, don't get me wrong, but I'm not defining myself according to the men around me. Not this time. Who knows where it's really going, if anywhere."

"If you leave it up to him, it's going places, Leah. Just like if you'd left it to Brad, or Jamie even."

"Nice to have some say in the matter for once. But you know, more than the dates, more than Brad or Miguel or any of them, Jacob did me a big favor letting me patrol by myself, scheduling me so I could go to school this year, letting me leave for Seattle this summer. That's what I need. I need to be able to get away. Figure out who I am. Not poor Harry's daughter who used to have such a bright future, not the pack's freak bitch of a sister, not Sam's pathetic ex."

"Is that why you didn't take him back?" Bella asks gently. "Why you didn't let him try to stay with you in Seattle?"

"Yes and no. I mean, yes, I want to move forward, not backward. I don't want to be defined by him anymore. That, and he hurt me badly. What bothers me isn't that he failed at fighting off the imprint, it's that he didn't even try. He sees that now, I guess, but it really is just too late. But more than that, I know it's not really up to him. Emily's not letting him go, and that's that. She holds all the cards, so I'm not going to play the game with an empty hand."

"He's gone back to her, huh?"

"Yeah. They came together today, I think you saw. I wish for his sake that she had let him go, let him find his own way, even just allowed him to make up his own mind. But she feels too strongly for him. She doesn't know how to be without him anymore. Really, she never did, even when he was mine. I guess she always wanted him, and the spirits decided to give him to her."

"Doesn't it bother her that she's not his choice? It's awful. I know I made Jacob feel like the backup, my second choice, for way for too long, and I'll never forgive myself for letting him think that he's anything less than the very best. And if he had any sense, he never would have stuck around me so long."

Dryly, Leah answers, "Good thing he has no sense."

Bella sputters. "Right. Thanks. But you know, I figured it out, right? Or he showed me. He fought for me and made me see who he really was, who I really am. We chose each other. Doesn't it bug her that if he had any say in the matter, he'd still be with you?"

Leah shrugs. "She wants him any way she can get him. And the imprint doesn't let him say the things to her that he really feels. She wants him to say he'll love her forever, so he'll say that. She wants him to kiss each scar on her face like it's the most precious thing he's ever seen, and he'll do it."

"Can't she see what's underneath?"

"Not if she doesn't want to look."

"It's so sad!" Bella exclaims.

"It is," Leah sighs. "I really, really, really hope I never imprint. But at least Jake has shown us that it's not the inevitable, irreversible thing we thought it was. But the difference between him and Sam is that Jake's wolf doesn't want Jasmine, but Sam's wolf wants Em. I guess I'll be screwed if my wolf wants my imprint. Let's just hope he doesn't exist, huh?"

"We decided who he'd be, remember?" Bella grins.

"Oh shit, I remember. Joshua Uley," Leah snickers. "It'd totally happen, wouldn't it. The spirits hate me just that much!"

At the same time that Bella and Leah rejoin the party, arm in arm, the low rumble of a car approaches. Paul sprints toward the sound. Leah releases Bella and into Jacob's hug and walks up the beach toward Jasmine, Embry, and Quil.

"Missed you," he murmurs and kisses her forehead.

"I've been gone for, like, twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes too long," he answers.

Leah calls back, "You're such a sap."

"Good thing I like him that way!" Bella answers before pulling him down for a deeper kiss. When she lets him straighten up, she whispers, "Thanks for being you," thinking of Sam, Leah, and Jasmine.

At the sound of a car door slamming shut, she sees Sam turn around, and his expression darkens visibly. He grips his tongs tightly. Bella turns back to see Paul tugging Rachel out of her car. Rachel is laughing as Paul spins her in circles. But that isn't what Sam is scowling at. Climbing out of the passenger side is Miguel. "I didn't know he was coming," she notes to Jacob.

"Me neither," he answers, a small smile on his face.

Seth sits up, shaking sand from his hair. He joins his mother in enthusiastically greeting Miguel, whose hand is still immobilized in a cast. Sue asks, "Where's the baby?"

"My folks have her for the weekend. Rachel told me that there's a new wolf? Said it might not the best place for a little kid."

"Well, we're glad you came," Seth smiles at him. "C'mon. Leah's just up the beach a little ways." They wander up the beach, and Sam's scowl follows them the entire way.

Leah turns when she hears them approaching. Jacob whispers in Bella's ear, "Oh my god, she's blushing!"

And indeed, Leah looks flustered. Bella has never seen that particular expression on her friend's face. She looks like she's trying not to smile, but failing. She and Miguel don't touch, but they lean into each other's personal space and away again. Leah keeps looking at Miguel's feet as she talks with him, and the two of them walk a little farther away. Every once in a while, one of them laughs loudly enough that even Bella can hear it.

Sam looks angry. He tries to keep his eyes on the burgers and brats in front of him, but all of them see him glancing away at Leah and Miguel from time to time. It clearly takes him effort not to stare at them blatantly. And when Leah gets so lost in conversation with Miguel that a particularly large wave rides up the beach to splash her, causing a girlish squeal, Sam turns red with frustration. Leah and Miguel start to walk back to rejoin the party. Her wet dress clings to her curves, while Miguel has stripped off his dripping shirt. He still doesn't touch her, but he doesn't bother to hide the fact that he is staring at Leah's body.

Rachel leans down and murmurs into Bella's ear, "Eat your heart out, Sam Uley," and Bella giggles in surprise. Sam's eyes narrow as he watches Leah, but he doesn't move otherwise. Bella is certain he heard Rachel, and that she meant for him to hear. If Rachel had listened to Leah's words from just minutes before, she would do much worse to Sam. For now, she simply fuels his jealousy. Rachel nudges Bella shoulders and gestures at Miguel. "Look at him, Bella, he could be one of the pack. He's got the body for it. Only he earned those muscles with hard work, not crazy genes. I got a look at his hands, or the one that's not in a cast anyway. He's got callouses on his fingers and scars on his knuckles from boxing. He's totally sexy."

Paul steps in their line of sight and flexes his biceps. "You like big muscles, huh?"

Rachel grabs his arms, trying to pull them down. "Hey, you're blocking my view. I can't see them!" When she can't budge him, she tries to walk around him, but he keeps moving into her line of sight.

He grins at her and flexes his abdominal muscles. "Are you sure you want to look at him? I think he's spoken for, and Leah might be a little possessive. I'm happy to let you look all you want." He keeps striking different and increasingly absurd bodybuilder poses, making Rachel laugh.

"Aw, that's what I was waiting for!" Paul relaxes at Rachel's happy expression, and he tucks her under his arm. She casually wraps her other arm around his waist.

Bella whispers to Jacob, "I didn't know Paul had such a silly side."

Jacob whispers back, "She brings it out in him."

Paul and Rachel move off to the side, Rachel still giggling as Paul tries to get her to name her favorite body part on him. "It's a toss up between my abs and my arms, right?"

"Shut up," Rachel snorts.

"Not those big muscles? How about my pretty face?"

"Hey, I'm much prettier than you are." She fakes a frown.

"I won't argue with that. It's my butt, isn't it? I can feel you staring at it when I turn around."

"You can feel that, huh? If I really wanted your butt, I'd grab it. Not look at it. I know you wouldn't stop me."

"You're right on that point too. Feel free to try that right now." He turns and waggles his rear end at her.

She playfully gooses him, and he emits a startled yelp. "What, you can't possibly be surprised, you asked me to!"

He turns back to her. "I didn't think you'd actually do it! Don't get me wrong," he reaches for her hands as she jumps out of the way. "You can grab any part of me at any time. I just didn't think you would!"

She tries to run off, but he wraps his arms around her waist and drags her back, tucking her into him. "Hey, no fair!" She squeals and wiggles uselessly in his grasp. "You're using your superpowers on me."

"I'll let you go when you admit that you like my ass."

"Why," she snorts. "Your ego isn't big enough as it is?"

He lowers his voice to an exaggerated, husky register. "Sweetheart, you have no idea how big I can get. And that reminds me. You shouldn't pick a favorite body part until you've seen them all."

Rachel collapses into helpless laughter, and Paul tumbles into the sand with her. "You're such a perv!"

"Does it take one to know one? I hope so," he teases.

Taking the last few steps toward them, Miguel looks at them rolling in the sand and asks Leah, amused, "Are you sure they aren't dating?"

"No, not anymore." Leah tilts her head at her friends giggling on the ground. Rachel tries to stand, but Paul playfully pushes one of her legs out from underneath her and catches her as she shrieks and falls back down. She retaliates by accepting the hand he then offers her to help her up, but immediately yanks him back down with her. He gives up and tries to convince her to make sand angels on the beach with him, loudly admitting defeat while wearing an expression that clearly states that he has, in fact, accomplished his goal by getting Rachel to play with him.

Sue approaches Leah and Miguel. "Poor dear, you're freezing!" And indeed, Miguel is starting to shiver. "Leah, help him out! You might be ten degrees above normal, but he isn't, and the Pacific isn't exactly balmy this time of year!"

Leah reaches out for Miguel's shoulders. "Oh, sorry! She's right, you're frigid." She starts to rub warmth into his arms and tugs him toward the bonfire. She sets him on the ground in front of her while Sue kneels to examine his cast.

"It's okay, it didn't really get all that wet. You don't need it replaced or anything. Let me see if I can find something to dry you off." Sue takes Charlie back to the cruiser for a blanket while Leah kneels down behind Miguel, sharing her body heat with him, and his shivering slows.

Miguel peers over his shoulder at Leah with a smile. "Am I the girl in this relationship? You can drink me under the table, you've saved me like a damsel in distress, and now I think you're about to lend me your jacket to keep me warm."

The firelight reflects off her deep brown eyes. "Is this a relationship already?"

He doesn't quite realize that all the wolves can hear what he says to her, so he openly answers, "That's up to you. You know where I stand."

Bella glances at Sam. His tongs are bent at an awkward angle from his tight grip. Emily approaches him to put a calming hand on his arm, but he jerks it away. But when he sees the injured look in her eye, he slumps a bit and apologizes quietly to her, then sets down the tongs and pulls her into an embrace. But over her head, he stares at Leah.

For once, Leah doesn't notice at all. She just smiles at Miguel until her mother reappears with a blanket. Paul and Rachel dust themselves off and sit down beside them, chatting sociably. The four of them make plans to eat out the next time they're all in Seattle, and Miguel launches into an analysis of the competing brewpubs in town before he and Paul retrieve a keg of his pub's amber ale microbrew from the trunk of Rachel's car.

"Are you trying to bribe your way into popularity with my pack?" Leah teases.

"That depends. Is it working?"

Old Quil actually answers him, demanding the first beer. He proclaims it to be wonderful and tells Miguel that he should come to not only all the bonfires, but all the tribal council meetings as well, so long as he brings more beer.

A few minutes later, Sam announces flatly that the burgers and brats are ready. The pack descends on the food. Sam only eats one burger and one brat, prompting Emily to fuss over him with worry. His shoulders slump, and he dutifully consumes one more of each to satisfy her. But every time she turns away from him, his gaze turns to Leah and Miguel, huddled together by the fire.

Paul and Rachel somehow get into a trivial argument. Their conversation turns to the Seahawks, and he keeps insisting that their recently departed running back, Shaun Alexander, had gone to Auburn for college. Rachel works herself into a tizzy trying to convince him that Alexander attended Alabama. Leah and Miguel laugh silently behind her back when Paul winks at them. He clearly knows she is correct and is only arguing to get a rise out of her.

Seth finally calls an end to the battle when, out of nowhere, Jacob's eagle appears. Although it lands on Jacob's outstretched arm, the ancient bird stares unflinchingly at Seth. So the boy decides to show off his new power. He walks up the beach with the pretense of talking with Jasmine, Quil and Embry, but once there, he lies down in the sand and sends his spirit to the sky, and Jacob flings his taxilit into the atmosphere. Within ten minutes, he has gathered a collection of ominous looking storm clouds over the ocean. And with a crack of thunder, he starts the show, shooting through the storm clouds in an intricate dance opposite the spirit guide.

They put on a lightning show the likes of which none of them have ever seen. Jacob sits in the sand and pulls Bella down to sit between his legs and lean back against his chest. For fifteen minutes, Seth and the eagle whirl, soar, and dive in and out of the clouds. He sends threads of electricity branching out like delicate lace before throwing great bolts worthy of Zeus zipping through the night sky. Time and time again the eagle looks as if it might fly directly into a flashing bolt or turbulent cloud, but the agile animal twists away at the last second each and every time. His friends and family watch in awe, laughing and cheering. Embry grumbles good naturedly that he wishes he had acquired that power, but Jasmine is delighted when a terrified rabbit rushes out of the forest and hides under Embry's arm. The gathered crowd deems the demonstration to be the best show they've ever seen, and later that evening, startled meteorologists across the Pacific Northwest go on to report a freak lightning storm on the eleven o'clock news.

Seth throws a final, giant flash of light tearing close to the cliff's edge to the north, while the eagle appears to dissolve into the inky night. He smiles from his position high in the atmosphere when he sees in the split second of illumination his sister tipping her head up to receive a sweet, chaste kiss. In the dark that follows, he thinks he sees her smile.

X-x-x-x-X


	32. Chapter 31

X-x-x-x-X  
April  
X-x-x-x-X

After their chaotic Spring Break, Jacob and Sam agree that he and Leah should no longer patrol alone during the day when the rest of the pack is in school. So from then on, Jacob pulls one wolf from classes each day. And on the day that the Volturi tracker arrives looking for the missing Cullen family, every one of them waits, phased and on alert, on the border between their land and Cullen territory. Alice had sent a message a week prior to warm them, but for once, her vision was crystal clear. She had seen the entirety of the interaction between Alec, Demetri, Rosalie and Emmett, indicating that the wolves were not going to be present, and moreover, that the Volturi guard would leave once they realized that Rosalie and Emmett indeed knew nothing of their family's whereabouts. Alice also instructs Emmett to go to the Humane Shelter as soon as possible to procure an explanation for the wet dog smell permeating the Cullen household, and he returns with a two year old husky-German shepherd mix he cheekily names Jake. Charlie and Billy, paranoid that the tracker will discover that their previous summer's ploy to fake the deaths of Jacob and Bella, ask a Quileute stonemason to rapidly fashion headstones for their children, which Sam and Paul place side by side in Forks' only cemetry over empty graves. Bella moves into the little red house for the week, while Charlie packs up her room to make it look unoccupied and combs the rest of his house from top to bottom to remove evidence that she currently lives with him. He even goes so far as to spread a thin layer of a fine clay material called Fullers Earth across the surfaces of her room to mimic dust. None of them are certain what messages the missing Volturi guard were able to pass to their masters before their disappearance, but as far as they know, the Denali sisters were not granted an audience with Aro and Caius, who never had learned specifically about the existence of the pack, so if there is a way to continue their ruse, they will do so.

Indeed, Demetri stops at the graveyard and Swan household directly before he goes to the Cullen mansion. Charlie is at the station as usual, and were it not for the scent trail that the vampire leaves behind for the wolves to find later, would never know his house had been invaded.

At Jacob's insistence, Rosalie leaves an open connection between her cell phone and Leah's, her phone sitting innocuously on the endtable in their den, while the wolves gathered on the other end listen intently to the confrontation from their spot in the forest.

A knock sounds in the background, and an unfamiliar male voice says, "I didn't think it would be quite this simple."

"It is," Rosalie answers. "Ask your questions. But I have no answers for you."

The voice sounds amused. "Then you are prepared to die?"

"We are," she answers. "But you'll get nothing from our ashes."

"We both know there are fates worse than death," a thin, high pitched voice answers.

Rosalie answers, "But that's your sister's area of expertise, not yours."

"I'm adaptable," Alec answers.

"We're not afraid of your smoke," Emmett growls.

"Perhaps you should be," Alec laughs, the sound deceptively childlike and harmless. Silence then follows, and a minute later, a terrible screech of tearing metal. Had Alice not already warned them that this would happen, the pack would have shot toward the Cullen household at that moment. But they hold still.

"Her too," Alec instructs, and another tearing rip echoes through the phone.

Another minute later, Emmett begins to groan in pain.

Demetri says, "Now, then. Let's try this again. Where are they?"

Coldly, Rosalie answers, "If we knew that information, do you really think we'd just be sitting here, serving ourselves up on a silver platter? Take us to Aro if you like. We both know that we have no way of hiding a single thing from him. Our family did not tell us where they were going, and they left us no way to contact them. We're only still here because we can't help you find them."

There is a long silence, then two heavy thuds. "But why didn't you go with them?"

"I'd rather die than live in fear," Rosalie says simply.

"Perhaps we should take you back to Volterra anyway," Alec muses. "You're right that there is no point in killing you. But you might make valuable hostages."

"We'll come willingly if that's what you decide." Rosalie finally tells a lie. The wolves know they are prepared to fight to the death to prevent being taken back to Volterra, and the pack behind them. "But we discussed it with our family before they left. We knew the risk we were taking when we stayed behind. They aren't going to come for us. You can't trade our lives for Alice and Jasper. You can try, but it isn't a bargain they'll make with you."

Another long pause follows, and Alec finally speaks again. "We aren't going to stop looking for them."

Rosalie responds, "We know. They know."

"Then we have nothing more to say." The wolves hear the swish of cloth against the floor. "Until next time." And the door closes.

X-x-x-x-X

Everyone relaxes incrementally after the guard's departure. When Bella asks Rose why she thinks she and Emmett were not dragged off to Volterra, she shrugs. "Because they know how easily they can find us again. If they want to, they'll just come for us later."

The rest of April is uneventful for Jacob and Bella, although Embry and his mother have a short-lived falling out after he confronts her about his parentage. Bella never hears the exact details, but Leah tells her that Joshua Uley is, indeed, Embry's father, but not from a consensual relationship. Embry, normally soft-spoken and even-tempered, had finally become angry when she would not volunteer the information on her own, accusing her of having an affair with a married man and being too ashamed to admit it. She, in turn, had yelled back that what had been done to her could in no way be construed as an affair. Mortified by what he had said to his mother, he had run from the house before he involuntarily phased in the living room. When he finally returned several hours later, she explained that after realizing she was pregnant, her grandfather had banned her from the Makah reservation. She had nowhere else to go except La Push, where a supportive girlfriend offered her a job and a room to rent. She had agreed despite immense trepidation at living closer to Joshua. But having no other resources or options, she had accepted her friend's offer. After, Sam quietly confirms to Embry that he is better off having never met their father, and the rest of the pack politely give Embry as much privacy as possible.

After taking an extra week off school, claiming a bad bronchitis, Jasmine returns to school. She and Jacob come to an uncomfortable understanding. She wants to be with him, but neither of them wants to share the pack consciousness. She is simultaneously overwhelmed by him, obsessed with him, and humiliated not to be able to control her thoughts around him. So he avoids patrolling alongside her. He usually puts her on with Seth, Quil, Embry, Sam, or Paul. Leah takes on a few weekend shifts that she would not normally patrol in order to "clear her mind of all the lies you asshats are filling her with".

Billy turns out to be right. Going to school alongside her turns out to be a blessing. His presence keeps her calm, so she is able to attend without much fear of accidentally phasing. The few times he sees her becoming agitated, he catches her gaze from across the room. His reassuring expression settles her. Once, after hearing another girl gossipping about her unusual absence from class, as well as the change in her appearance upon her return, she feigns dizziness and gets excused from the classroom. Jacob sees her peering at him through the window in the doorway, gets a hall pass from his teacher, and is able to spend the next few minutes soothing her. A hand on her shoulder usually does it, or in a particularly bad moment, a gentle hug. He can feel her need for more, for the hug to turn into an embrace and a kiss, but she wisely does not ask, and he offers nothing beyond what he must do to keep her human.

She wants to eat lunch with them every day, even when her friend Julie is fighting with Embry, but Jacob encourages her not to lose her friendships. He saw what it did to Leah, and he does not want her to become any more isolated from her normal life than she already is. Leah turns out to be immense help in this regard as well. She sacrifices a weekend in Seattle to join her cousin for a sleepover with the girls, in this case Julie, Katelyn, and half a dozen others in Jasmine's class. She promises to keep an eye on Jasmine and ensure the safety of her friends. Her presence turns out to be fortuitous. One of them obtains a cooler full of sangria and hard lemonade, and unfortunately, Katelyn turns out to be a rather mean drunk. She starts to make insinuations about Jacob and Jasmine that only serve to upset Jasmine, so Leah makes sure to shut Katelyn up with a few well placed barbs based on things she had learned from Katelyn's short-lived affair with Paul the year before.

Unfortunately, Katelyn's gossip turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg. Although her control is good enough to avoid phasing in public, and she does not make any more of her earlier mistakes of nearly exposing herself, Jasmine's ability to mask her feelings for Jacob is not so good. Everyone notices. And every time he is seen touching her shoulder or giving her a hug, the rumor mill starts turning again. Jacob struggles to keep his own temper under control when he overhears whispered conversations about whether he is still with his hokwat girlfriend, if he has dumped her, or if he is cheating on her with Jasmine. It is almost enough to tempt him into forbidding her to see her girlfriends, since no one does more to feed the fires of gossip than Katelyn.

In this case, though, Jasmine's imprint serves them well. She naturally wants to please him, and pleasing him now means setting the record straight. She can't keep the wistful, sad expression off her face, but she finds herself continuously correcting misconceptions. It earns her thanks from Jacob. He has a hard time maintaining any anger with her when he hears her repeat, over and over again, that Jacob is madly in love with his girlfriend, and he considers her to be a friend at best.

Slowly, the latter statement becomes something close to truth. Between seeing each other in classes, eating lunches together, and attending pack meetings and get togethers, it is impossible not to get to know her better. Their wolves continue to be the most difficult aspects of their relationship to control. Jasmine's human side at least understands, intellectually if not emotionally, that clinging to Jacob only irritates and angers him. Her wolf, however, is not nearly so sophisticated. Her wolf wants its imprint, period.

Which means that from time to time, Jacob wakes up to the sound of her wolf's mournful howl. Nearly every night that he isn't on patrol, he sneaks into Bella's bedroom, so when he hears her outside, his first priority is Bella's safety.

The first time it happens, she had not seen him in two days due to a school inservice and their conflicting patrol schedules the next day. By Sunday night, her pull to him is stronger than she can resist, so she finds herself trotting to Forks. When he sees her in the woods outside Bella's window, he leaps to the ground to confront her. But when he sees her sad eyes staring at him, ears back against her head, shoulders dipped down and tail hanging low, he sighs, scratches her between her ears, and sends her back to her patrol, promising to see her for breakfast the next day. A few hours later, she tries to apologize, but he puts her at ease with a wave of his fork and changes the subject. She gratefully accepts a ride to school, and they spend the rest of the day ignoring what had happened.

The second time, he doesn't allow his annoyance to show on his face. He simply leans out the window, reassures her he is fine, and resolves not to go more than a day without at least casual contact with her. He watches until she is gone, then wraps a groggy and disoriented Bella back into his arms.

The third time it happens, he almost misses it entirely. He doesn't awaken to the sound of Jasmine's howls or whines. Rather, he drags himself out of a heavy sleep when he feels a cool draft across his skin and hears Bella whisper-yelling out the window. He sits up and rubs sleep from his eyes, seeing her leaning halfway out. Being the clumsy girl that she is, she leans too far, and he has to jump out of bed to sling an arm around her waist to keep her from falling out. Which is when he sees Jasmine's small orange wolf sitting by the tree in the yard. She barks a soft goodbye and trots off.

"What was that all about?"

"She missed you, I think," Bella explains.

"I'm sorry, honey. She shouldn't have woken you."

"It's okay." She turns in his arms and rises on her tiptoes so that she can slide her hands up his chest and around his shoulders. He obligingly lifts her up, and she tucks her face into his neck, breathing him in. He smiles when he looks down and sees her feet hanging above the floor, wiggling her toes back and forth. She mumbles, "I was just telling her how tired you were after patrol last night and going to school all day long."

"What did she say?"

"Um, woof?" she answers dryly and wraps her legs around his waist.

He snorts and squeezes her more tightly. "Silly girl. How did you even know she was out there?"

"I just had to get up to go the bathroom. I was looking out the window when I saw her. She was just sitting there."

He tenses his arms around her. "She's going to get spotted one of these days. I've talked to her about that. Apparently I'd better do it again."

"No, I don't think that's necessary. It's in the back. No one else could have seen her other than people in this house."

"Yeah, but what if we weren't just sleeping?"

"Oh, well, I don't want an audience. Either way, she's gone for tonight. Let's go back to bed."

He slides one hand down to grasp her under her buttock, then yanks his hand back when he realizes he put his hand right over her wound. "Sorry, sorry. Did that hurt?"

"No, not at all. You didn't feel it, did you?" She emphasizes her point by circling her hips against him and groaning quietly. Although Jacob has used his tongue and fingers to pleasure her, he had steadfastly refused to make love with her fully since her injury. Even though Rosalie had removed her stitches two weeks prior, Jacob swore he could feel the reflected, deep ache in his own hip whenever she moved the wrong way. She wasn't nearly as patient as he was, enlisting Leah's assistance to dress as provocatively as she dared, slithering against him unnecessarily, even going so far as to make sure she was touching herself one night when he crawled through her window. His eyes had blazed, and he had crossed the room in two great strides. She was thrilled when he pushed her hand out of the way and replaced it with his tongue. But when she tried to drag him up above her, she had winced at the weight of his body on hers, and he had refused to allow her access to him beyond her hands on his engorged length. That had been the prior week.

"No, no, I didn't feel anything. Anything except this." He illustrates by pushing his growing erection against her core as he pulls her as close as possible.

She attacks his lips with her own, suddenly desperate to have him. But when he sits heavily on the bed with her astride his lap, the bedsprings screech, and Charlie snorts so loudly from the next room that they both freeze.

A minute later, when her father's snores resume, they relax and lean back into the bed. "When does he start night shifts again?" Jacob asks.

"Three nights from now," she grins back at him.

He fists her hair, drawing her roughly in for a passionate kiss. When she breaks away to breathe, he growls, "Then you're mine."

"I'm already yours," she purrs. They whisper quietly in the dark until they drift off again.

X-x-x-x-X

Jacob spends the next day as a nervous ball of energy. Having Bella close, but not close enough, makes him and his wolf a little stir crazy. At school he is totally unable to concentrate on the lectures or his schoolwork. The uncontrollable bouncing of his knee irritates Embry to no end. His friend tosses small wads of paper at his head during class, to no avail. But when lunch finally rolls around, Embry takes the first possible opportunity to drive the tines of his fork into Jacob's restless leg. His resulting howl of painful surprise is so very wolf-like that two teachers run in from the hallway looking for a wild animal. Instead, they find Jacob holding Embry in headlock. In a strangled voice, presumably due to being strangled, Embry profusely apologizes to a confused Bella on Jacob's cell phone. She had placed the call right after the inexplicable, crippling pain in her knee caused her to fall, sending all her belongings sprawling across the sidewalk.

The confused teachers try to pull Jacob off Embry, finding his grip to be as tight as a vice until Seth crosses the room and pries his arm off. Paul, Jared, and Quil collapse rather uselessly against the table in fits of helpless laughter. Everyone within listening range is perplexed at Jacob's assertion that Embry will hurt Bella again at risk to his own life, several students looking about the room for the pale, pretty girl that Jacob calls his girlfriend, and not finding her anywhere. But their confusion is overtaken by surprise when Embry, coughing in his small plastic chair, is suddenly yanked backward and dragged halfway across the room by an irate Jasmine who snarls into his ear, "If you ever so much as lay a finger on him again I will end you!"

All three of them end up in detention that afternoon, and all three of them end up in trouble with their respective parents and guardians. But the humor of the incident breaks the tension between Jacob and Jasmine. They end up peeking at each other across the quiet classroom, unsuccessfully trying to keep their sniggering silent. Jacob keeps bouncing his knee just to piss Embry off. Jasmine joins in, frenetically tapping her pencil against her desk. When Embry grows irritated enough at both of them to hiss at them both to shut up and quit moving, they earn a second day in detention, to be served the following Monday.

Because of the disciplinary action, Jacob arrives home late. Charlie and Bella have already arrived at his house. Billy had received a call from the Vice Principal that Jacob was in trouble, and Paul had come to await Rachel's visit home. He had apparently explained what happened with a great deal of embellishment, so Billy scowls at him the moment he walks in the door. Charlie just looks amused. Jacob escapes to the kitchen, where Bella is preparing dinner. She had been counting on his assistance an hour earlier and is rather frazzled, biting at her bottom lip nervously, a gesture that never fails to drive him wild. His tenuous ability to focus wavers further. She is rushing around the hot kitchen so much that she has started to perspire a bit, and the resulting heady aroma of Bella mixed with the wine she uses to cook makes Jacob almost dizzy.

He doesn't help his own case when he finds himself staring rather blatantly down her shirt instead of mashing the potatoes she handed to him. Bella notices, causing a pretty pink blush to spread across her chest, which makes him stare even more obviously. He doesn't snap out of his lust-induced trance until he hears Paul laughing at him. He didn't even notice him hanging in the doorway to the kitchen.

Soon, Paul is distracted by the sound of Rachel's car pulling into the drive. He rushes out to greet her, knocking over a chair in the process. Jacob calls behind him, "Are you skipping? You are, aren't you?"

"He wasn't skipping." Bella shakes her head.

"He may as well have been," Jacob pouts. "He's so damn excited to see her."

"He was tripping, not skipping." She leans over to peek out the front door and look at them. Rachel's has a wide grin on her face, although she appears to be getting slightly crushed by Paul's hug. "She's pretty excited to see him, too, I'd say."

Paul lifts her suitcase out of her trunk with his right hand, but he keeps his left wrapped squarely around her waist. He carries her in, squealing and smacking at his arm, demanding to be put down.

"Nope. Can't make me," he answers. He turns around, intentionally almost bashing her head against the standing lamp by the door, then pulling back at the last second.

"Aah! You're going to break me! Plus I have to pee," she protests.

"No I won't, and no you don't."

"What? Of course I do! I just drove here from Seattle, and I had two cups of coffee on the way!"

"That was dumb of you, wasn't it? As if you couldn't have predicted this."

She relaxes as she giggles against him. "What are you talking about? How could I have seen this coming?"

"How long has it been since I've seen you?"

"Two weeks. It's not my fault you didn't study for your history test early enough and had to cancel last weekend."

He huffs. "It is so your fault! If you hadn't trapped me on the phone for four hours the week before, I'd have finished my work then!"

"Trapped you? You called me!"

"But you kept talking to me! What was I supposed to do, hang up on you?"

"Wait, what?" She sputters, confused as to the direction the conversation has taken.

Slowly and loudly, he explains, "I haven't seen you in two weeks. You can't expect to waltz in here, abandon me to go to the bathroom, and not expect me to follow you in."

"Yes I can!" she insists.

"Just for that, I'm going to punish you." He twists her around so that she faces away from him, staring incredulously at Bella and her brother, who are laughing at her from the kitchen. Then Paul squeezes her bladder.

"You jerk!" she squirms. "I'm gonna freaking wet myself!"

"Ew. Don't do that," he pouts. "We're not there yet. I don't think our relationship is ready for the pee-with-the-door-open stage. At least buy me dinner first."

"I'm gonna pee on you in a second! Jake, Dad, somebody help me! Chief Swan, arrest him!"

Billy is torn between amusement and annoyance and doesn't help her at all. Charlie throws his hands in the air and backs away. Jacob finally stops laughing long enough to say, "Are you going to do this the easy way? I don't like to Alpha order you to do things, but I'm happy to pry you off my sister with my bare hands."

"Fine," Paul sighs dramatically, rolling his eyes. "If you insist."

Rachel rushes off to the bathroom, and Paul happily makes himself a plate of the chicken and potatoes that Bella had made. When Rachel hasn't returned by the time he has finished his second plate, and both he and Jacob are snickering amongst themselves, Bella finally asks them what is going on. "She's hiding," Jacob explains.

"How come?"

"She's flustered. We can hear her heartbeat and her breathing."

"Paul's making her flustered?" She eyes Paul, who is grinning like a madman. "Is there something going on between the two of you?"

Rachel's muffled response can be heard through the door. "No!"

Paul just winks at Bella. "Then how come you're pacing a hole in the floor, sweetheart?"

The faint shuffling sounds from the bathroom stop. "I'm not pacing!"

Even Charlie is in on it now. "Not anymore," he mutters, not bothering to look up from his plate. But Bella can see the wry smile underneath his mustache.

Jacob and Paul burst into laughter simultaneously. When Bella looks at them in confusion, Jacob explains, "She just said, 'Stupid crazy wolf hearing.'"

Paul calls out gleefully, "If you don't come out soon, there won't be any food left!"

Bella shakes her head even though Rachel can't see her. "Don't listen to him. I saved you a plate. But it is getting cold."

"Thank you for making dinner, Bella," Rachel calls out somewhat forlornly.

"Rach," Jacob laughs, "Just come out here and eat it!"

"Not until Paul leaves!"

"What are you, six years old?" Jacob laughs.

Paul stretches out languidly, extending his long legs in front of him and interlocking the fingers of both hands behind his head. "Then you're going to be in there a while. I'm just settling in."

"But now I'm embarrassed!" she whines.

Paul's cocky grin melts into a soft smile, and he steps down the hall to tap gently on the bathroom door with one finger. "C'mon out, Rach. I'll stop teasing you. We both know that the levels to which I've gone to totally humiliate myself over you are ridiculous. You've got a long way to go before you catch up to me."

"That's true," she admits reluctantly, cracking the door open slightly.

Paul's eyes crinkle in a warm smile when he meets her eyes. "There's my girl," he says softly, reaching out for her hand. "Let's get some good food into you, huh? I'll bet you're starved."

"It does smell good," she peers down the hallway, then looks at his hand, and finally places hers in it. He leads her to the table, puts her food in front of her, and then sits down across from her and distracts her by telling her about Jacob's tiff with Embry and the resulting stint in detention. By the time he is done, he has her laughing so hard that a tear rolls down her cheek, and he looks positively blissful at having made her laugh.

X-x-x-x-X

Saturday, Bella doesn't see Jacob after eating breakfast with him. He had switched shifts around in order to leave his nights free with Bella while Charlie will be at the station, and in anticipation, runs a double shift for Saturday afternoon and night. Bella invites Leah and Seth to dinner that evening to relieve her boredom. The siblings descend on her lasagna as if they haven't eaten in days, and Charlie wonders aloud at Sue's ability to keep her children fed. When Charlie leaves after dinner to get a beer with some of his deputies, Bella, Seth, and Leah drive to the Cullen house. Rosalie has prudently avoided the reservation since Jasmine phased, but that hasn't stopped the Clearwaters from going to their home. Seth and Emmett immediately argue over whether to play the Playstation or the X Box, finally deciding to arm wrestle. The winner will decide what to play. Rosalie and Leah both roll their eyes and leave the boys in the den. Bella peeks curiously over their shoulders, but the door slips shut behind them. The sounds of a scuffle and a crash alert Bella that someone probably won, but the riotious laughter that follows doesn't illuminate the identity of the winner.

Rosalie offers the girls mixed drinks, but after her last disastrous experience getting drunk, Bella chooses soda instead. The three friends sprawl out on Esme's expensive couches, and Rosalie opens up a box of chocolate truffles so decadent that she herself eats three.

"Why didn't Rachel come tonight?" Rosalie asks.

"Hanging out with Paul. Not sure what they're doing exactly," Leah answers.

"Fucking like bunnies, perhaps?" Rose asks dryly, while Bella tries not to choke on her soda.

Leah just shakes her head and thumps Bella on the back. "Nah. I'd have seen it in his brain."

"What's she waiting for? Life's short. She should have fun."

"I think she is," Leah explains. "She's not celibate, Rose. She's got a boyfriend. It's just not Paul."

"How about you?" Rose asks with an arched brow. "Have you enjoyed that lovely young man of yours yet?"

Leah actually stammers her answer, "No, no. Nothing like that. Last time I saw him, his hand was still in that cast."

"Darling, he doesn't need a functional hand for you to climb on and enjoy him. We once lost Emmett's left arm for a week. Barely slowed us down."

Leah doesn't even know how to respond to that statement, but from the next room, Emmett calls out, "Lost? Lost, my ass! You stole it!"

"What happened?" Bella demands.

Rosalie smirks. "He's just a sore loser. We were up in Alaska, and he made a bet one of the friends of the Denali sisters. Emmett said he could catch a dozen penguins in half an hour."

Bella looks confused. "But there are no penguins in Alaska."

"Exactly."

From the next room, they hear him yell, "They tricked me! And then they didn't just take my arm, they hid it in the den of an angry mother grizzly. It was Rose's idea, too. Took me a week to even track it down, then I had to fight the damn thing off to get it back."

"You loved it!" Rosalie laughs.

"I did," he admits. "It was the best fight I'd had in years! Oh, goddamit!"

Seth laughs gleefully at that. "Shouldn't have turned away from the screen, bro."

"That was my last life! Now I have to wait for your dumb ass to finish the level!"

"Or you could concede that I'm just better at this than you, and we can play Halo."

"Never!" Then a muffled thud sounds, silence, and more laughter.

Rosalie dishes out more gossip about her husband, and in exchange, Leah divulges amusing and embarrassing secrets about various pack members, much to Rosalie's amusement. But eventually the conversation rolls back around to Jasmine.

"Has the bitch tried to pee on your mate yet, Bella?"

Bella scrunches up her nose at the mental image. "Ew, yuck."

"It's your fault she's a bitch, Rose," Leah chides.

Rosalie shrugs. "She was a bitch long before I brought out the, um, literal interpretation of the word. But I do admit that perhaps I might have kept some of my thoughts to myself."

"No harm done," Bella reassures her.

Leah frowns at Bella. "No harm done? Did Jasmine hit your head when she ripped a chunk out of your thigh?"

"Okay, no permanent harm done."

"Except for the scars."

"But they're healing nicely, thanks to Rose," Bella insists.

"Make her stop this," Leah insists to Rosalie, pointing at Bella.

"Fine. My apologies for provoking the little bitch into phasing on top of you. But I stand by my original statement. She was a bitch before I came along. Trust me. It takes one to know one."

"It's okay, Rose, it was just an accident. And she and Jacob seem to be coming to some kind of middle ground, anyway."

Rosalie arches an eyebrow. "A middle ground?"

Bella shrugs uncomfortably. "They're... friends?"

"I wouldn't go that far," Leah shakes her head. "But he doesn't really want to kill her anymore, and she's stopped throwing herself at him."

"That's about the best I could hope for, I think," Bella sighs.

"Wow, you're really a glass-half-empty sort of girl, aren't you?" Rosalie argues. "That's not the best you could hope for. I think she should leave him alone."

"As much as I'd like that, I don't think it's possible."

"Will it be? Eventually?"

Bella shrugs and looks at Leah for support. Leah shakes her head. "Don't know. Jacob rejected his imprint of her, but no one has a clue how to break hers for him. Although he could reject her entirely, I suppose, leave her behind. It's up to him."

"But he wouldn't do that to her," Bella insists. "It would hurt her so much."

"So what," Rosalie asks. "They're stuck by each other's side for all eternity? Does he even like her as a friend?"

"No," Leah answers immediately, reassuring Bella.

"It would be okay if he did," Bella says softly, despite how uncomfortable it makes her feel.

"But he doesn't. Not really. Yesterday made him feel a little easier, but that's all."

"So I ask again, is she just going to have to follow you and Jacob around forever?"

"I hope not," Bella says softly.

The melancholic turn to the conversation ends abruptly when the walls start to rattle, a tremor running beneath them.

"What are you guys doing in there?" Rose calls to Emmett and Seth. "Just because Esme doesn't live here right now, doesn't mean you can destroy her house with impunity!"

"It's not us!" Emmett opens the doorway to the den. "We were mashing on the controllers, not on the foundation."

Rosalie shrugs. "Must have been a little earthquake, then. This whole coast is going to fall into the ocean at some point anyway."

A small aftershock vibrates the house, but nothing further.

X-x-x-x-X

Bella forgets all about Rosalie's question by the following night. Once Charlie leaves after dinner, Bella finds herself standing in front of her closet in her towel, wet hair dripping down her back, a pile of discarded clothes covering her bed. She feels foolish. It isn't as if this is their first time. Jacob knows every inch of her body, so why does she feel like a blushing virgin?

She flips by hanger after hanger, rejecting her casual jeans and tees, sweaters, the few skirts and dresses she owns. She holds the slips in front of her body, then puts them back on the bar, dissatisfied. She finally lowers the towel and inspects herself. She wants a longer slip that she doesn't own. She wants to cover up the visible lines marring her hip and thigh.

She shakes her head to clear it. Jacob has seen every one of her scars, every one of her blemishes. He has bathed her wounds with his soothing hands and kissed every one of her injuries. Frustrated with her own self consciousness, she hastily clears her bed of the piles of clothing. But as soon as she starts to put her clothes away, another small earthquake shakes the house. Several items of clothing that she had strewn precariously over her dresser and on the small knob on the closet door end up on the floor. She hastily moves to stand between the doorjambs, waiting for an aftershock, but none comes. Eventually she steps out of the safety of the doorway, picks up her remaining clothing, dries out her hair, and slides between the sheets.

After five minutes of anxiously staring at the closed door, she grabs a well thumbed copy of Jane Eyre off her nightstand and settles back. Just as Jane is boarding the coach to Lowood, she hears the front door open and close, and she slides the book away.

When Jacob opens the door to her bedroom, he grins at the sight of his beautiful girl awaiting him in her bed. She is propped up on one arm and is looking at him with a wicked little smile on her face. Her sheet covers her, but just barely. If her bare shoulders are any indication, she wears nothing beneath. He licks his lips and stalks toward her, reaching to pull the sheet away. But she grabs it and holds it still before he can slide it off her.

"What took you so long?" She quirks an eyebrow at him.

"I'm sorry, honey. I had to clean up a little mess at home."

"Did you feel the earthquake too? It knocked some of my clothes on the floor. We felt one last night, too."

He sheepishly rubs the back of his neck with his hand. "Yeah, that wasn't exactly an earthquake. That was me."

She blinks at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know how I can control the elements when I'm in spirit form? Wind, fire, water? Apparently earth, too. But I'm no good at it."

She sits up straighter. "Wow. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. What exactly can you do?"

"Useless stuff or uncontrollable stuff. Nothing in between, unfortunately. I can throw clods at dirt around, which is just dumb unless I want to piss off a vamp by making them muddy against their will. Or I can cause an earthquake, but that's dangerous. Any earthquake strong enough to do damage to a vampire in a fight would ripple out and destroy all kinds of stuff. That's why I'm late. I accidentally uprooted some redwoods, and the houses that were a couple miles away got shaken pretty badly. Including my house. My dad's pissed. A picture fell off the wall and smacked him in the head."

Bella is torn between laughter and concern. "Oh no, is he okay?"

"Yeah. More mad than anything. I don't think I should screw around with earth anymore, though. I don't want anyone's house to fall down on them just because I couldn't find a better way to fight off a leech."

"Better stick to the dragon thing, then," she smiles.

"Sure, sure," he says distractedly, shifting on his feet and trying to resist the urge to yank her sheet off.

"What is it?"

"Uh, are we done talking yet?" he blurts out.

She smiles at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. "A little eager, are we?"

"It's been, like, six weeks, Bells," he whines.

"You can't claim blue balls after the other stuff we've been doing," she smirks.

"It's not the same. Besides, you're being a total tease. I know you're not wearing your jammies." He stares at her bare shoulders and the fist holding the sheet tightly to her chest.

"What do you think I'm wearing?" she flirts.

"Nothing, I hope. But I know what I want you to be wearing."

"What's that?"

He grins at her. "Me." And he yanks the sheet away.

The grin falls off his face as he lets out an audible groan, and she giggles at the blatantly lustful expression on his face. But his expression becomes more tender when she tries to slide her left hand over her hip to cover her scar.

He leans over to take her hand in his. Softly, he says, "Don't cover up any part of yourself, honey. You're beautiful."

"They're kind of ugly," she argues.

He kisses the back of her hand before sitting on the edge of the bed and trailing his fingers over the three red lines on her hip, then each one of the bite marks on her wrists. Her skin tingles pleasantly along his path. "They're part of you. They're part of your story. Part of our story. It could have been different, you know?" He earnestly looks her in the eye. "This skin, it could be rock hard, freezing cold, and impossible to scar."

"But it isn't," she smiles back at him warmly. "Thanks to you."

"Your skin is going to change, Bella, and that's how it's supposed to be. If I get my way, I'm going to watch you get stretch marks here," he murmurs and lightly runs his fingers over her belly, "when you have our babies." He runs his thumb at the corners of her eye. "You'll get laugh lines here because of my stupid jokes." He points at his own waistline. "I'm gonna get love handles here, because I'm gonna keep eating way too much of your amazing food even when I don't phase to justify it." He reaches up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "This is gonna go gray, and so's mine. We're both gonna get really wrinkly. Okay?"

She can't help but grin at him. "Okay."

"So you'll agree to get flabby and shrunken and pruney and gray with me?"

She opens her arms, and he wraps himself around her as she laughs. "I do, Jacob."

"Aw," he sighs into her ear. "I want to hear you say those words again."

She fingers his mother's ring on her right hand. "Mmm. While I'm wearing a white dress?" She closes her eyes and envisions it.

"Yep. I'll even put a dress shirt on for the occasion. And full length pants." He squeezes her more tightly.

"Not a tux." Her mental picture looks wrong, although she is certain Jacob would fill out a tux quite nicely. "Khakis and a white dress shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, no tie."

"Shoes?"

"Nah. Barefoot, on the beach."

As he rolls her underneath him, he points out, "But it always rains here."

"In the rain then," she laughs and runs her fingers up and down his flanks, making him shiver.

"That sounds like fun, but our guests might complain."

"Who cares, it's our day, not theirs. Besides, you or Seth can blow away the clouds."

He leans back far enough to look at her. "You're going to be the very least Bridezilla of any bride ever, aren't you, except for demanding that the weather change on your account?"

"Maybe. But I also want Charlie to give me away, and for our families to be there."

"I should hope so. That's not very Bridezilla."

"But I also want a white dress, though. A long one, but not too fancy." She reaches up to stroke her fingers against his face, and he leans into her hand.

"What about the thing that goes over your face?"

"A veil? No, I don't think so."

"Good." He kisses her on the tip of her nose. "I want to be able to see you."

"Me too. Plus anything that impairs my vision will probably make me trip and fall," she giggles.

"Good thing you won't be wearing heels, then."

"You discovered my ulterior motive to wanting a barefoot wedding."

He nuzzles her nose with his own. "Tell me what else you want."

"You," she answers simply.

"No," he laughs. "When we get married. What else do you want?"

"Just you," she repeats.

"We agree then. You're all I want too." He kisses her sweetly before pulling back and winking at her. "And the honeymoon. Can't forget about that."

"Yeah? Anywhere in particular you want to go?"

"Who cares about the destination? Let's just lock ourselves in any room with a bed."

"Like this one?"

He chuckles and clarifies, "Any room with a bed that's not adjacent to a room containing one of our parents."

She licks her lips. "Happily, there are no parents here tonight."

"Which begs the question, why the hell are we still talking?" And he descends on her. The kiss is a little misaligned due to his grin and her giggling, but very pleasing nonetheless. She tilts her head to try to accommodate him, but all she manages is to bump noses with him, causing her to laugh harder. "Hey, hold still!"

"Yes, sir!" She obligingly stiffens beneath him and purses her lips, which allows him to aim properly and press his lips against hers, but her continued snickers make it difficult to maintain. He gives her a few more light pecks on the lips, laughing with her, before finally nudging her chin to the side with his nose so that he has full access to her neck.

"If you're just going to laugh, I might as well give you a reason for it," he threatens. And then he swiftly pins her arms to the bed and licks at the most sensitive area of her neck. She shrieks in laughter, helplessly ticklish from his assault. He switches between nipping at her gently with his teeth, flicking his tongue back and forth, and blowing streams of air onto the wet surface, and she squirms beneath him in futility.

"Aah! I give! You win, I give!" she shrieks.

He picks up his head but doesn't free her arms.

"What do I win?"

She raises a brow and looks down suggestively at her naked body pinned beneath his. "Um, whatever you want?"

"Oh boy." He pushes up enough that he can stare at her breasts, whistling his approval. "I think I want these first." And he slides down to take a nipple into his mouth.

Her smirk disappears as she arches her back into him and gasps. He doesn't waste any more time, suckling deeply in a rhythmic pattern that has her entire body pulsing in seconds. He wraps his left arm underneath her, freeing his right to thumb over her left nipple, relishing the way it stiffens. When she relaxes back into the bed, he releases her from the warm confines of his mouth only to lap delicately around the areola with the very tip of his tongue. At the same time, he begins to pinch and tug gently at the other side. She tries to push her breast back into his mouth, but he pulls away every time. She squirms and makes a low whining sound in the back of her throat, but he only murmurs, "Relax. Just let me love you."

It is the only thing he wants to do. His life has turned into some kind of science fiction melodrama. He had expected something entirely different, a simple existence. School, working hard, getting a degree, finding a job, taking care of Billy, letting Billy take care of him. And in his heart, he always knew that he was meant for Bella Swan, and she for him. The absurd twists that fate has thrown in his path are nothing he could ever have predicted. He will go down in his tribe's history as a legendary spirit chief, Alpha wolf and warrior, but he does not desire rememberance in this way.

What he wants is right here, in this bed, with him now. Nothing else in his life is occurring the way he expected, except this. Except her. He can meet any of fate's challenges as long as he has her to fight for, to return home to.

He tilts his head up to lap at the mark he left on her breast several months ago, and she hums in pleasure. She runs her fingers through his hair, scraping gently with her nails. As he continues to tease and kiss, keeping his contact light to avoid bringing her to climax, she responds with an increasingly tight grip on his hair. He shivers with her as her pleasure reflects off him.

When her whimpers take on a frustrated edge, he shifts to suckle deeply at her other nipple and use his hand to pinch and tug at the tip of her breast just the way she likes it. She hisses her approval, and the sound shoots straight to his groin. For a second, he contemplates brushing past the remaining preliminaries and burying himself in her immediately. She would not protest; on the contrary, she would probably come instantly. He can sense how aroused she is. But it has has been weeks since he was able to fully enjoy her beautiful body, and he wants to take his time.

He releases her breasts and hovers over her. "I want to make you feel good."

Her eyes are unfocused as she blinks at him. "You are. You are, please keep going."

"I will. I'll make every inch of you tingle." He descends to capture her lips again, his soft full lips brushing back and forth against hers, the warm tip of his tongue trailing along the seam and then dipping gently in when she sighs against him, her fingers digging into his shoulders. He kisses his way down her jaw, along the delicate skin. He reaches back to unhook her hand, slips his lips across her shoulder and in the ticklish crook of her arm, all the way to her fingers. He pauses to wrap his lips around the tip of her index finger, flicking his tongue against the pad in a teasing prelude to his next destination. He kisses his way across her stomach and dips his tongue into her navel, causing her to buck her hips against his torso, but he just presses her back into the mattress with a firm hand.

And then he snakes his tongue out, tracing the scars on her hip, and she is shocked to realize that he has managed to turn the hypersensitive injury into a new erogenous zone. She gasps aloud in surprise. "How are you doing that?"

He just hums a satisfied response and rests his cheek on her belly, reaching up to her flanks with his fingers, brushing lightly up and down. Electricity zings across her skin, and she giggles at the lovely sensation. He murmurs, "I don't know which I love more. Making you smile or making you come."

"You're really good at both those things."

"But I could always use more practice. Let's practice right now."

"Which one?"

"Both." Then he spreads her legs open and settles between them.

She wants his tongue in her slit, but first he nips at her inner thighs lightly with his teeth, causing more giggling and squirming. But she can't maneuver him where she wants him with his hands holding her hips still. Finally he stops to inhaler deeply of the aroma of her sex, and his mouth waters. He stares at her.

"This is all for me, isn't it?" His voice is a rumble. He can't resists any longer, and he laps up her flavor with his tongue, massaging her smooth, shaven labia over and over. His wolf growls in satisfaction at the taste of her. She reaches down to grip at his hair once more, and this time he gives in to her push. He sinks his tongue into her entrance, and she pulses gently around him.

"Please," she begs.

A single flick of his finger or tongue on her clitoris would throw her over the edge. But instead, he concentrates on drawing as much of her nectar from her body as he can, quenching his thirst for her. No flavor in the world is more satisfying to the wolf or the man than this, pure, unadulterated Bella. For half a second, he wonders why Edward Cullen wanted to drink her blood when this comes from her body, but the thought disappears as soon as it came.

Above him, Bella pants and cries and bucks her hips against him. He inflicts the sweetest of tortures on her. He feels simply amazing, but every thrust of his tongue leaves her wanting only more. He holds her right on the edge interminably, and she whimpers and wants. Just one more touch. She begs him.

Suddenly he moves, and for a moment she thinks he will finally take her clitoris into his mouth. But instead, he slithers up her body, tearing his mouth from her flesh. "Why'd you stop?" she pants breathlessly and with no small amount of irritation.

He dips his fingers between her thighs, still just teasing her, as he licks her lips and plunges his tongue inside to stroke it against hers. She moans at the taste of herself. When he finally pulls away enough to speak, he whispers harshly, "I'm not stopping. I just want to see your face when you come."

He leans up high enough that he can see her, looking down at her soft, inviting curves. She pulses and aches and burns for him. The pretty pink flush that he loves covers her cheeks and chest. He watches his own brown hand against her pale skin and smirks, then briefly tweaks one of her hard nipples before plunging down between her red, swollen labia, and he sinks two fingers inside.

She throws her head back, eyes slipping shut as she fists the sheets beneath her. "Oh! Oh! Jacob!"

"Look at me," he demands.

She bites her lip with the effort of complying, and when she relaxes into the bed and opens her eyes, she sees the sexy smile that belongs to her. He curls his fingers obligingly, swipes his thumb across her clitoris, and murmurs, "That's it, baby girl." And that is all it takes.

She splinters apart into white hot fragments, but Jacob pulls her back together.

As long as he holds her in this perfect place with his hand working her body and his eyes locked onto hers, she can't come down. The heat from his form and his gaze feeds the inferno overwhelming her. He looks equally pleased and aroused at her reaction to him, the corner of his mouth quirked up as he watches her, his own sex throbbing with the reflection of her climax. Her skin glows in the dim room. Her thick hair fans out on the pillow beneath her. Her full bottom lip drops open in a gasp. "God, you're beautiful." He continues massaging her, watching her squirm and buck up into him until she thinks she will lose her mind. She can't bear for him to stop, but she doesn't know how much more she can take.

She doesn't realize she said it aloud until he removes his hand and centers himself at her core. "This. You can take this." And he slides into her.

This. This is where he always wants to be. With this woman. Always with her. She is warmth and ecstasy and joy and comfort. He drowns himself in her. He surrounds himself with her. The warmth of her flesh, she scent of her arousal, the taste of her sweat, the sound of her moans in his ear. He has loved her since he was a child, and the only person with the power to change that is her.

He can barely hold on through the sensation of her tight walls spasming around him. This is his very favorite way to enter her: as she orgasms all around him. There is no better sensation on earth than the wet heat of her body. He could sleep with a hundred women and never replicate this perfection, let alone surpass it. Because his body knows hers. Her heart is his heart. She is his soul's home.

He tilts his forehead to touch hers, finally letting his eyes slip shut. If he continues looking at the wild light in her eyes as she comes, he will come right along with her. He holds still as she clutches at him with her hands, her legs, her cunt, and he tries not to come.

Eventually, her ecstatic cries slow, and her tight grip on him loosens infinitesimally. He realizes that the soft sounds she whispers at him are words. "So good. Love you. My Jacob." He opens his eyes, and her eyes are bright with tears. She looks as happy as he has ever seen her.

He kisses away the salty liquid, and she laughs silently all around him. He groans in response to the unexpected movement, and she smiles up at him. His heart melts. This is his smile. She has never looked at anyone else the way she looks at him. Her happiness is the gift she gives him, and he will never take it for granted.

"I love you so much, Jake," she whispers. "Before you found me, before you showed me what it meant, I had no idea. I was a foolish child," she shakes her head, "caught in a ridiculous, half-formed fantasy. I thought love was about longing, wanting, aching."

He tilts his head at her, a little confused. "I've felt all those things, Bella. All for you."

She nods at him eagerly. "And I did too. For you, when I didn't know our dreams were real, I ached for you. I burned for you. But I didn't know that was only the beginning."

He presses his smiling lips to her own, gently bumping her nose with his. "There was so much more, honey," he whispers.

"I know. It's endless. The possibilities with you, with our life. This isn't it, I know it. We're going to find out what else is out there, and it's going to be so good."

"As long as I've got you, I believe that."

She drags him back for a more passionate kiss, and the movement shifts him inside her. They both groan at the feeling, and he raises up on his forearms for leverage, drawing his hips back so that he nearly falls out of her. But then he rocks back in.

"Oh, oh!" she gasps. "I... I..." she breaks off.

He drags slowly out again. "I know, honey." He rocks back in. "I love you, too."

Their lovemaking is sensual and passionate, tender and loving. He kisses her again and again. He strokes at all the most sensitive points on and in her body. He gently runs the pad of his thumb over the sensitive mark on her shoulder, then reaches down to tug at her nipples, and slides his hand between their bodies to rub circles on her clitoris, all the while rocking in and out of her. His thick crown massages her g-spot and strikes into her cervix over and over. He fills her to the brim with his words, his breath, his warmth, his cock, and his love, and she returns his passion to him in full. She grasps at his arms, his thick shoulders, his broad back. She undulates her hips to meet his thrusts, and she kisses, bites, and licks every inch of skin she can reach. She holds him in her flesh, cradles his heart in her own, nurtures his soul with hers, and whispers words of fulfillment in his ear.

And as he picks up speed, his rocking growing into thrusts, his breathing broken and gasping, his need to stay inside her forever wars against his need for release. But it is her reaction that puts him over the edge. When he leans up so that the base of his length drags against her clitoris, he triggers the beginning of her final climax.

Her pussy flutters around him. He slams into her in response. He wants to crawl inside her all the way, let her body be the only world he knows. He clambers at her, shoving in hard before instinct drags him out again, and he falls into her, over and over. With each thrust her climax builds. Higher and higher, stronger and stronger, clutching at him, gripping him, grasping at him, until there is nowhere else to go. He bellows into her ear, his own cry nearly drowning out the sound of her screaming out his name.

With one, two, three shuddering plunges, he explodes inside her, hot streams of cum bathing her womb.

Minutes later, he wants to tell her he loves her, but it takes all his will to turn his boneless body over so that he doesn't crush her. Somehow, she clings to him, draped over his form, their sexes still locked together.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks as always to my beta, Babs81410. On a side note, Tricky Raven is hosting an Author/Artist Silent Auction to cover their administrative costs. If you're interested in bidding to have me (or another of a long list of very talented individuals) write you a one-shot based on your idea or prompt, check out their site and think about making a bid. The auction closes March 15.


	33. Chapter 32

X-x-x-x-X  
May  
X-x-x-x-X

The week passes as quietly as the last few. The pack continues to patrol around the clock, but no new trails have appeared since Demitri and Alec departed. Jacob dutifully checks the secure email account that Jasper set up, but no more messages arrive. He isn't certain if this should reassure or worry him, but since there is little he can do other than stay vigilant, he sets his anxiety aside. Rosalie does assist the pack by sketching a portrait of Tanya so that the wolves can recognize their enemy, but she does not appear.

Jasmine even manages to leave Jacob and Bella alone as they sleep. He is never certain, but he suspects that she may have stumbled across them making love one night and realized it was much more painful for her to be exposed to that rather than be patient and wait to see him again. In fact, the day after a particularly passionate encounter with Bella during which they never manage to make it up to her bedroom, Jasmine couldn't look him in the eye. He wonders if she spotted them through the kitchen window, in the living room, or simply heard them when they were on the stairs.

Either way, the outcome is the return of their privacy. Sadly, Jasmine stops her nighttime visits around the same time that Charlie returns to day shift. One Friday night after her father has fallen asleep, Bella murmurs to Jacob that she can't wait for him to finish school so they can move into their own place, and he squeezes her tightly as they envision their shared future. He doesn't say it out loud, but at this time the year before, he despaired of ever having this, of the love of his life not only choosing another, but destroying everything that made her human. He had never felt so helpless in his life, not even when his mother lay dying in an operating room in Forks Hospital. After all, it had never been his responsibility to arrest the drunk driver that had taken her life, but if he could not fight off and destroy the monsters seeking to end Bella's life, who else could? It was he and his brothers who were chosen by the spirits to battle the undead monsters, and he their next Alpha.

She finally asks him a question they had both been avoiding: what they should do once he graduates from high school. She doesn't really want to go any further from him than Port Angeles, but she isn't quite certain what she does want to do. As much as she likes it, spending time with Jacob isn't exactly an occupation, and she can't quite envision herself as a housewife.

He answers with another question. "Well, what do you want to do?"

"Be with you," she answers immediately.

He echoes her previous thought. "Me too, but that's not a job. Not that you really have to work..." he trails off, thinking of Edward's money.

"I really wasn't planning on just sitting on the pile of money. But that doesn't mean I have any idea what I do want to do. But I don't want to do anything far from here." They both know that she refers to the likelihood of him needing to stay in La Push.

"Just pretend there are no limitations. No obligations, no ties, no restrictions. What then?"

"I can't! There's no way to imagine that. The things that tie me here are my life. You're asking me to imagine what my life would be if it wasn't my life."

"It's not that hard," he insists. "Just think of yourself before you moved back here. When people used to ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up, what did you say?" Jacob knows the answer already, of course, but he is trying to make her think about it

"A teacher," she replies immediately.

"Okay, so how would you feel about being a teacher?"

"No one should make me responsible for a group of impressionable minds. What a terrible idea that was," she mutters. "The fact is, I never had a clue. I think I said that since my mom is a teacher, and it seemed like as good an idea as any. But I'm not particularly sure I'd be any good at it. Or that I'd like it at all."

"I think you're underestimating yourself. But you don't have to be a teacher just because you said you wanted to when you were twelve. What else?"

"Mmm," she wracks her brain trying to come up with something. "You remember a few months ago you were telling me about the life you thought we'd have? If there were no vampires, if I was just a girl, and you were just a boy?"

"How could I forget?" He twists his mother's ring where it sits on her right hand. That was the same night he gave it to her.

She leans over to kiss him lightly on the lips. That was one of the best nights of her life, despite the fact that he was about to leave to battle demons, and she wasn't certain she would ever see him again. "You mentioned a few things I could do. Things you envisioned me doing. You mentioned that maybe I'd be a librarian. I think I'd like that. Surround myself with books, you know? I really like my information systems class."

"I can totally see you doing that."

"But it's a master's degree, Jake. I can't go away for that long."

"Well, since we're imagining no limitations, I kind of want a master's degree too. Or the job I want requires one, I think."

"What's that?" she asks, fascinated. "You said engineering or architecture before. Is that it?"

"I'd still like that, but I guess I'm not that good at imagining no limits. I'm a bit of a hypocrite, I guess. Nah, I couldn't ever come back here and take care of Billy and expect to work in either of those jobs. What's here, small businesses, the resort, the jail, the hospital? I could work as a mechanic, but I think I like working on cars and motorcycles so much because it's a hobby. I don't think it'd be quite so much fun to work for the quick oil change place, you know? It would be awesome to have a restoration business, but there's no market out here."

"So then what?"

"I thought maybe I could be a physical therapist or occupational therapist. If we need to stay here, I could get a job at the hospital, or if you wanted to move to, oh, New York City or somewhere I could get a job there. And it's still mechanical, just body mechanics instead of machines. Plus I'd get to talk to people all day long."

She picks her head up to look at him. "Wow, Jake. That sounds like a great idea. How'd you think of it?"

He shrugs. "You gave me the idea. That time after you ran Leah's car into the leech and I was massaging you when you were sore? You said I'd make a good masseuse. I didn't think about it much at the time, but a couple weeks ago my dad's PT made an offhanded comment. She was showing us how his ankle has a contracture. Since he doesn't use it much, the tendon actually shortened a bit, so it's even harder to move. She was showing us how to stretch it out, showing me since I have to help him a lot, and she said I should think about doing it for real. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a decent idea."

"Sounds like you've really thought this through. Do you really think you could get away long enough to go to school?"

"Not right now, but I still have senior year left anyway. I don't know, it might take a while, but I was kind of wishing we wouldn't have to patrol forever. We went generations without needing to phase. I was hoping that might happen again at some point, and even if it takes a while, I could go to school then. I could do the pre reqs online, and wait until things calm down, then actually go to college. There's programs in Seattle and Tacoma."

"You've got it all mapped out, huh?" She snuggles closer to him, deliberately avoiding talk of Tanya or Alice's alarming vision, or if Jasmine fits into this picture at all. She no longer harbors any concern that Jacob has any romantic feelings toward his rejected imprint, which is the reason she is able to tolerate the thought of the other girl at all. After all, if this is a fight over Jacob, she has already won. But Jasmine shows no signs that she can be physically apart from him for long. Will she simply follow them from place to place? Will she attend college wherever Jacob does by default? Live in the house next door when they get married and babysit their kids?

He shakes his head and laughs, pulling Bella away from her less than pleasant reverie. "Nah. I just talk a good game."

"Well," she yawns, "I think that should be our new goal. We'll aim for UDub. Maybe we could even time it so we could go together. When I get my associates from Peninsula, you'll be done with high school."

"Maybe we can commute together. I've basically run out of classes to take at the tribal school, at least when it comes to math and science. Next year, I'm probably going to spend half my time at Peninsula or online classes anyway."

Bella grins to herself. She loves the idea of a normal, human life with Jacob, and she wants it like she has never wanted anything. Her once-coveted wish to be a vampire seems like an absurd nightmare compared to what she has right in front of her. "I'm proud of you," she whispers, and when she sleeps that night, she dreams of a cozy house and Jacob chasing dark skinned, black haired children through the backyard.

She doesn't know it, but fifteen miles away, Jasmine is having much the same dream, while one hundred fifty miles in the opposite direction, two other men are envisioning a very similar future with one Rachel Black.

X-x-x-x-X

Paul arrives at Rachel's apartment building just before eight pm. She expects him in about an hour, but he had managed to leave La Push earlier than expected, and he sped the entire way in the Dodge Challenger he had purchased with the first installment of Edward Cullen's money. Leah had stayed behind, as Miguel and Sophia were due to arrive for a visit to La Push in the morning.

By now, he knows Seattle almost as well as he knows the reservation. He finds a parking spot very close to her building and races up the stairs, eagerly clutching his duffel bag in his left hand. But on the other side of the door, he hears a voice he has come to despise more than any other. He would almost rather hear a vampire in Rachel's apartment. His right fist freezes just millimeters away from the wood in an aborted knock.

Two heartbeats pound away from inside Rachel's apartment. He can't hear Rachel's voice at all. But Trevor's voice, although he speaks at a low volume, sounds like screaming in Paul's ear. "Last week was my last shift. I got the promotion, baby, and I don't have to work both jobs anymore."

"Congratulations!" Rachel says brightly. Paul closes his eyes in frustration. He fears that from here on out, she will no longer be his every weekend.

Paul hasn't seen the other man in months. Rachel has done a nearly perfect job keeping them apart. She doesn't schedule dates with Trevor when Paul is in town, a simple matter while he has been working weekends, and she comes to La Push more often than not. But evidence of her lover cannot be erased. Paul had nearly phased in her bedroom the first time he smelled the other man on her sheets. She had seen him shaking, and after that had been careful to stay at Trevor's apartment rather than invite him to hers. And Paul, livid though he was, knew he had no rights over her. He wanted her to be happy more than he wanted her to be his, and most of all, needed her to be safe. So he had somehow managed to still his vibrating body, a feat that became much easier when she placed her small hand in his and reassured him that the next two days were devoted to him. And by the time he left on Sunday, he had to admit to himself that her new, relaxed and friendly attitude toward him was worth enduring the other man's presence in her life.

But tonight is something else entirely. The equilibrium they have achieved over the past few months has been shifting incrementally but steadily. The fact is that Paul is closer with Rachel Black than he has ever been with anyone, and he is only growing closer. And he sees in her wide open eyes and bright smile that her anxiety over his imprint, her frustration over the forced relationship, is entirely gone now. What remains is warmth and love. He just doesn't know what sort of love.

He still hasn't told her about his amicable breakup with Elle, although he has continued to see her as a friend. He has also gone on a few congenial but otherwise uninspiring dates since that time. He had even slept with one of the girls he had taken to dinner, finding both her company and her skills in the bedroom surprisingly pleasant. She isn't his new girlfriend, not yet, but he knows she could be.

Particularly if Rachel accepts the offer being made to her right now, just feet away from him. A small part of him feels guilty for eavesdropping, but he is unable to tear himself away. Trevor's deep, rumbling voice is thick with hope. "That's not all. I've... I've never felt this way about anyone before. I know I haven't been able to put you first all the time, and you deserve to be first. You deserve the world. I want to give you the world, Rachel. And with this new promotion, I think I'm finally going to give you the time you deserve. It'll be a little while 'til I can give you the world, but you have to know that I will. You're worth it."

Paul stops breathing at the same moment Rachel does. "What are you saying?" she asks.

Paul hears the unmistakable jingle of a key on a chain. "I hate being apart so much, only seeing you a few times a week, sleeping apart. I want to wake up next to you every morning, come home to you every night. I want you to move in with me. I love you, and I want us to live together."

Time stops, and Paul no longer sees the wood grain in front of his eyes, but bright white. He imagines Rachel smiling on the other side of the door, her eyes shining with happiness, love filling her heart for the other man.

He almost cries out when she answers, "I love you too," but she follows quickly with, "but I'm sorry. I didn't... I don't..."

He hears the abrupt rustle of cloth when Trevor shoves the key back into his pocket. "It's okay, baby," Trevor hastily tries to backtrack. "I sort of sprung that on you, didn't I? It's okay if you're not ready. I mean, we've only been dating since the summer. It's too soon. I've got shitty timing. You just signed a lease with Leah, I know."

"No," she whispers, "It's... I..."

"Don't worry about it," he tries to reassure her. "Forget I asked. It's not a big deal, really. Let's just go to dinner. You said earlier this week you had a craving for Thai. We can go get some, or have it delivered. I just got ahead of myself. Let's just enjoy ourselves, huh?"

"I'm not free tonight, remember?" Her voice quavers.

Trevor is silent for several seconds, and then Paul hears the squeak of the floorboards as Trevor begins to pace. "I know we didn't make plans. I thought I'd surprise you, that's all. Your friend is coming tonight, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"Leah coming with him?"

"I don't think so. Next weekend, probably. After finals. It's just Paul tonight. It's... He's..." She can't finish her thought, but both Trevor knows her meaning either way.

Trevor's words are clipped, and Paul pushes down the urge to go protect his imprint. "It's him, isn't it."

Paul can't see it, but he hopes she is nodding in response. When she finally speaks, he hears the tears in her voice. "I'm sorry," she whispers.

At Trevor's next words, Paul drops his duffel and places his hands flat on the door, holding himself back from smashing straight through it. "Are you sleeping with him?"

"No!" she answers. Although she probably shouldn't be surprised by the question, she is anyway. "It's not like that! He's got a girlfriend, and it's not me!"

"Then why doesn't she ever come up here with him?" Trevor demands.

"She works weekends too, just like you. I see her sometimes when I go home. She's pretty great, actually. Do you really think I'd cheat on you?" she asks, sounding hurt.

The pacing stops. "No, no, of course not. That's not you, I know that. But..." Paul wishes he could see through the door during the interminable pause. "I think you're in love with him. Are you in love with him?"

Paul can't tell if she doesn't answer, or if she doesn't answer with words. All he knows is that Trevor's next words are, "And me?"

"I love you, I do," she whispers, and Paul's heart breaks. He grabs his bag and turns to leave, but he stops when he hears her say, "But I think we're going in different directions. I don't think this is working. I don't want to lead you on."

"You're not... You don't..." Trevor stutters, then takes a deep breath. "I don't want it to be over. You're amazing, and you and me, we're so good together. Don't you feel it? This thing between us?" Whatever Rachel's answer, it still isn't with words. "I'm sorry about what I said," he continues. "I'm sorry I'm jealous. Of course I trust you. It's just, look at you, Rach. How could I ever trust him? He's gotta be in love with you, girlfriend or not. You're so beautiful, and so smart and funny and sexy, and if he isn't gay then he's got to be in love with you. How could he not be?"

Rachel doesn't deny it, and Paul leans against the door for support. Of course he's in love with her. Imprint or no, Rachel is every bit as amazing as Trevor says, more than either man could express adequately in words. Paul never stood a chance against falling for her with or without the imprint.

"I'm sorry," Rachel whispers brokenly.

"No, baby, no," Trevor pleads. "Let's just start this whole night over again. Okay? We're too good together, you and me."

"It's just... You want something different than what I want. That's all." Now it is Trevor's turn to be wordless. He can't very well turn back time and not ask her to move in with him. "I'm sorry," she repeats. "I really didn't see this coming, but I think you should go."

"Please," he asks. Paul can't be certain, but he thinks Rachel stops him with a kiss. He can hear the sound of her lips before one of them steps away with another creak of the floorboard. Neither of them speaks again for a full minute until Trevor's choked voice says, "I really didn't think that was gonna happen tonight. I wasn't certain you'd say yes, but..."

"I'm not going to give you that cliched 'It's not you, it's me,' speech, but you have never done anything wrong. You're wonderful."

"But I'm not him," Trevor answers quietly. "When's he getting here?"

"Hour or two, I think."

"I hope he makes you happy, Rachel. I hope he treats you like a queen." Paul vows silently to do just that, every day for the rest of his life.

She stammers, "No, no. He's with Elle, not with me. He's happy with her."

"Not for long," Trevor predicts. Footsteps approach the door, and Paul quickly slips out of sight just as he hears the knob turn. He would love to gloat in the other man's face, but that would just upset Rachel. He hears, "Call me if you need anything, okay?"

And he watches Trevor's back recede. The door closes quietly, and he hears sniffling behind it. As soon as the elevator doors close, he returns to Rachel's front door. He doesn't know if she'll think it poor form, but when he realizes she is crying he bursts in without knocking. The urge to comfort her is too great.

He steps toward her with open arms. "C'mere. It's okay." He catches sight of her red-rimmed eyes blinking at him in surprise for only one second before she buries her face in his chest and wraps her arms around his middle. He kisses the top of her head and strokes her hair with his free hand, murmuring nonsense words of comfort and holding her tightly to him. He doesn't know if they stand there for a minute or an hour, but eventually she pulls back and looks up at him.

"I didn't want to hurt him," she begins.

"Of course you didn't. Even he knows that," he reassures her.

She nods at him skeptically. "He did know. And he was right."

He watches her, hoping desperately that she means what he thinks she does. "He was?"

She tilts her head. "How long were you there?"

"Long enough. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop. I just got here early, is all."

She shakes her head. "It's okay."

"But what were you saying? What was he right about?" He has to know.

"Yeah. He was." He can barely hear her, she is so quiet. "It's you."

"What do you mean?" He needs to hear her say it.

She drops her gaze to the center of his chest. "I'm not going to lie and tell you it was always you, that you were always the one, but my feelings have changed. I was so freaked out, so overwhelmed when you imprinted on me."

He cuts her off before she can get any further. He doesn't want her by default. He fears that she turned down Trevor's offer because it would hurt him, and not because she wants to be with him. "Please, don't feel like you have to. I don't want you to feel obligated."

She shakes her head while staring at her own feet. "I don't feel like I have to. I want to. I choose to." She meets his eyes, and what he sees there reflects his own emotions. "I love you. I'm in love with you."

And he cannot resist any longer. For each of their past few meetings, he has been unable to keep his hands off her, taking any and every excuse to touch her skin, hold her, hug her, to display his affection. It was all he could do to keep from kissing her. But now there is no reason to hold back. He tugs her close, his fingers gripping her around her lower ribs tightly, and lowers his mouth to hers.

It is the sweetest sensation he has ever felt, even better than their first and only kiss. Because he knows this is a beginning, not an end. So he explores her slowly, memorizing the sound of her breath catching in her chest, the fluttering of her heart, how small her form feels under his hands, the plush fullness of her lips. She opens them with a sigh that goes straight to his groin, and he gently tastes her intoxicating flavor.

Her body is caught between unbearable tension and utter bonelessness, and she has never felt more alive than she does in this moment. Her fists, until now clenched so tightly that her nails almost break the skin of her palm, are compelled to open slowly, trace up his arms and shoulders, and bury themselves in his short hair. He growls in response, causing a rush of arousal to shoot through her while he hardens against her. He separates his mouth to kiss and nip his way along her jaw and down her neck. Her head drops to the side to allow him better access, but just when he works up the nerve to lower his hands down her waist and palm her ass to pull her up to wrap her around him, she freezes and stumbles back, out of his grasp. "Oh my god, Paul, I'm so sorry." Her eyes are wide with surprise and dismay, and pain blossoms in his chest at her regret.

"No, never be sorry for that," he says, reaching for her. But she backs away again.

"I shouldn't have done that," she shakes her head. "I'm being so selfish. I know how this works. I want you to kiss me, so you do. I want you to want me, so you do." She stares up into his face, and the expression there is unmistakable. Lust intermingled with love. Complete and total devotion. She nearly gives in based simply on the look on his face. How is she supposed to resist such attentions when she has fallen in love with him?

"I do. I want you. More than anything," he growls and stalks toward her, need pulsing through him. But she stops him with a hand in the center of his chest.

She shakes her head. "You're not mine to have. The power the imprint gives me, I don't want to abuse it. You might feel like you belong to me, but I know better. What about Elle?" she whispers.

She is completely confused at the grin that spreads across his face. "Oh, Rach. We're just friends." He takes the hand pressing against his sternum and wraps it in his larger ones, pressing his thumbs into her palm.

"What?" she furrows her brow. "But I thought... You said you saw her a couple days ago."

"I did. I just didn't tell you. She's seeing someone else now."

"Why didn't you say something? Why didn't you tell me?" She is actually a little hurt. With or without romantic love blossoming between them, she is Paul's friend, and she expected him to tell her such things.

He tugs her close again with the hand he holds, then tucks her hair behind her ear and presses another kiss to her forehead. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to keep secrets. I didn't want you to feel obligated to me, Rach. You've been so good to me, making sure I can make up my own mind, keep my own will and have some control over my life. Making sure I wasn't going to become your puppet like Sam is with Em sometimes. And I wanted the same freedom for you. I didn't want you to think you had to be with me. So I've gone on a couple other dates since then, but there's nobody serious. There's only you. I wanted you the second I saw you, and I still do, but I'm a total sap now, as bad as your idiot kid brother around Bella. Probably worse." He grins at her, and then the grin turns into a warm smile. "I love you."

She looks up at him with wide, hopeful eyes. "I love you too. I'm yours," she whispers back.

And his resulting smile warms her through and through. "Say it again," he demands softly.

"I love you."

"Again," he closes his eyes, letting her words wash over him.

"I love you," she repeats, and he can hear the truth of it in her tone as well as her words.

"And you're mine?" He squeezes her waist possessively, opening his eyes and staring hungrily at her red lips. His wolf has finally tasted his mate, and she is delicious. The animal howls at him to carry her to her bedroom, strip her naked, mark her with his hands and tongue on her body, his seed in her womb, his teeth in her soft skin. The man wonders how many days, hours, or minutes he needs to count down until she will let him do any of these things.

"I'm yours. Only yours. Why aren't you kissing me?" she laughs.

So he does, again and again and again. And when she whimpers and clutches him close with her fingernails digging into his skin, his mental countdown spins down to zero. They never even make it to the bedroom.

X-x-x-x-X

Paul and Rachel don't leave her apartment for the entire weekend. He keeps her naked, only handing her her robe when he realizes that the hapless delivery boys who bring their meals will get an eyeful if she answers the door in her current state. They don't fall asleep until four AM early Saturday morning, and he doesn't even realize that his duffel bag still sits on the floor outside her front door until midday Saturday. He accomplishes not a single one of the homework assignments he brought with him, and she doesn't grade any quizzes. He waits until the very last possible second to leave on Sunday evening, barely making it home in time to start his nighttime patrol with Embry.

Everyone is happy for them, even Leah, whose opinion of imprinting could not possibly be lower. Jared is so pleased that he almost hugs Paul when he finds out, while Paul is so happy that he almost lets him. Jacob calls Rachel the second he finds out what happened, concerned about whether she is having second thoughts. But he hears the smile in her voice as she speaks of him, he can't help but be glad for both of them, although an equally large part of him wants to punch Paul in the throat for defiling his sister. But no one is more excited for Paul than Emily. Kim has to stop Emily from calling Rachel to congratulate her, knowing that Rachel's opinion of Emily is so poor that any communication offered will only anger Rachel.

What no one predicts is Jasmine's reaction. As soon as she learns of the change, her hope is renewed. After all, other than Quil and Claire, her imprint is the only one that has not turned into a romantic relationship. When she patrols with Seth on Monday, she can't hide her feelings. Although her mind is not the entirely open book it was when she first phased, neither is she especially good at hiding her strongest emotions.

Seth tries to reset her expectations gently. _Jas, it really isn't the same thing. _

_Right. Rachel never would have imprinted on Paul. She's not a wolf. But Jacob was meant to imprint on me! What we are supposed to have should be twice as strong. But I had moved, and it gave Bella the chance to get in the way, that's all. I just have to be patient. If I can wait them out like Paul waited for Rachel, he'll be mine someday. Just as he was meant to be. _

_I'm sorry, I don't mean to hurt you, but it isn't just a matter of time. Jake's in love with Bella in a way that Rachel never felt about her boyfriend. They've got some kind of connection that nobody understands. _

_So do we! He's my imprint, and I'm supposed to be his. _

_But you remember that they also share dreams. Literally. And that physical connection, their hearts beat in the same rhythm. And you were there when Embry stabbed Jake in the leg. Bella felt it from miles away. _

_I know, I know, _she admits. _But if there was really nothing between us, if he didn't want me at all, the imprint wouldn't make me feel this strongly. I have to be what he wants, what he needs, right? The way Quil really only sees Claire as his sister. So if all Jacob wanted from me was friendship, or to leave him totally alone, I'd want to do that for him. But I don't feel that way. Which must mean he has feelings for me. _

Sadly and quietly, Seth reminds her, _You've been in his head. Can you find any evidence of that?_

_I can hardly see anything in his mind! He's too good at filtering his thoughts, you know that. Just because he hasn't admitted it to himself or to me doesn't mean it's not true, _she protests. _I mean, he's a good guy. He really is. Part of the reason I love him so much is that he's loyal. He isn't a jerk who's going to drop his girlfriend the moment someone else comes along. I can't be mad at him for that. Someday, when their relationship runs its course and we're together like we're supposed to be, I'll be grateful he'll treat me with that kind of respect too. _

Seth is speechless. How could he possibly respond to her line of thinking? Between her human feelings and her imprint, how can they expect her to feel anything else? _I just don't want you to wait around for something that probably won't happen. And we're his pack. We all care about each other. You might be mistaking brotherly feelings for something else. _

_Jacob and his sister are a lot alike, _she insists. _They're stubborn and passionate and loving. To the point of rejecting their imprints. But Rachel came around once she got to know Paul. Jake will too, once he allows himself to get to know me. We used to be great friends, Seth, remember? I'm not some random stranger. I can be so good for him. _

Carefully, Seth answers, _But is he so good for you? _He doesn't say anything more specific, but they both know that although Jacob has done his best to treat her fairly, he has shown her little warmth. He puts a hand on her shoulder or even brings her in for a small hug when she needs his calming influence, and after their stint in detention laughed a bit more easily around her, but that is all.

The question startles her. Instantly, her imprint answers for her. _Of course! _But somewhere deep inside her mind, in a part of herself she can no longer properly access, she wonders if that is really true.

X-x-x-x-X

So over the next few weeks, Jasmine fully convinces herself that given enough time, Jacob will fall in love with her in the way that Rachel fell in love with Paul. Her belief is unshakable, and it simultaneously makes things better and worse. Somehow, this mindset relaxes her, as she believes that what Jacob needs from her is patience, so she approaches the pair of lovers with a new sense of calm. And were it not for sharing the pack mind, Jacob might not know what is going through her mind, and if so, he might have believed that she had finally realized his true feelings for her and Bella. He could have mistaken her composure for acceptance. But despite avoiding patrols with her, it is impossible to stay out of her mind entirely. So he sees that rather than respecting his relationship, she is awaiting what she anticipates to be the natural end of his relationship with Bella.

He is mortified and confused by her reaction. On the surface, she treats both him and Bella more kindly. They still see each other frequently. Once the school year ends, he makes certain to schedule her patrols just before or just after his to ensure that they have regular but limited contact. And if days pass when they do not plan to see one another, the Clearwater siblings, Embry, Paul, or Quil arrange casual social gatherings to include both of them, and Bella is almost always included.

And when Jacob watches Jasmine out of the corner of his eye, he sees that the seemingly friendly smiles she aims at Bella are laced with pity, as she fully expects that Jacob will grow apart from her and eventually fall into Jasmine's open arms.

The situation drives an uncomfortable wedge between Jasmine and Leah. Finally, after months of pure heartache, Leah's life is finally beginning to move forward again. She requests extra patrol shifts, usually alongside her brother, Jacob, or even Paul, to make up for her anticipated move to Seattle, and they all happily discover that her vitriol and aggression have shifted into biting wit and impressive energy. But after she shares a shift with Jasmine, realizing that her cousin has begun to pity her for her split with Sam in the context of anticipating Jacob's future breakup with Bella, she becomes livid.

_Don't hold your breath waiting, honey, _she hisses. _I know that there wasn't anything you could do to stop from imprinting on Jacob, but all you're going to do by holding out for him is make him angry. The world is going to pass you by._

_We're still young, _Jasmine retorts, _not to mention frozen in time. I can wait, and I will wait. He's the one for me, and the spirits agree with me!_

_That's not what imprinting is about. Quil's your friend. Do you really think his soulmate is a fucking toddler? Please. Besides. If imprinting was such an infallible thing, Sam wouldn't have wanted to stay in Seattle with me, and Jacob wouldn't have rejected his imprint on you. It's not going to reform, no matter how long you wait._

_It will reform! Even if the full imprint never takes place, we're going to end up together. I know we are. I've always known it. My feelings aren't forced or faked, not like what happened to the other guys. I've known he was the one since I was a kid._

_Which is as long as Jake has known he wanted Bella._

_She might be right for him now, _Jasmine admits with infuriating composure, _but she hasn't always been, and she won't always be. I can wait her out. Just think about it. How often do high school relationships actually last forever? They'll grow up and grow apart, or she'll find someone else that interests her, or he'll realize that while he keeps phasing and staying young, she's getting old, and that'll be the end of them. It might take years, I admit, but I'm not going anywhere._

Leah is incredulous. _Jasmine, even if they do break up, and yes, I'm not foolish enough to believe that just because they say they'll be together forever that it will happen, why do you think he'll pick you in the end? Just because he might not be with her forever, doesn't mean he's going to end up with you._

_No one is better suited to him than I am! _Jasmine insists. _He just has to figure that out. He doesn't know me very well. But when he does, I'll be ready._

_He doesn't know you? What are you talking about? He can see into your damn brain! He knows every last one of your secrets. He's your Alpha and your packmate. He knows you inside and out, probably better than you even know yourself._

_Then he knows how good I am for him, somewhere deep down. He just isn't free to see it, to feel it right now. I know she captured his heart before I got here, so I have to wait until he figures out that she isn't the one for him, or she figures out he isn't the one for her, and then he'll be free to love me. I mean, this is a girl that fell for a psychopathic monster. There's no way she's the right one for him._

_I wasn't always her biggest fan, _Leah admits. _For a while I thought she was the dumbest, whiniest, neediest, most self-destructive girl in the entire state of Washington. But even if she still was, even if she was the worst thing that ever happened to him, he'd still pick her over you. You need to get it through your skull. He loves her, warts and all, he doesn't love you, and it isn't going to happen. _Leah phases out with a frustrated growl.

That evening, while ranting about imprinting on the phone with Rosalie, her friend answers, "Jacob should just Alpha order her out of the pack. Kick her out and force her to live her own life. It'll be better for both of them."

"He's too nice," Leah sighs. "He knows just how much it would hurt her, physically hurt her, emotionally destroy her, to be apart from him."

"Too nice or too chicken? Being the boss means making painful decisions. He just needs to suck it up. It's not like he's really doing her any favors by letting her pine after him when he has no intention of ever dating her."

"Maybe. What he really needs to do is find a way to break her imprint with him. Otherwise they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I mean, he rejected his imprint of her, so it has to be possible somehow."

"Has anyone ever done that? Like, ever in the history of your tribe?"

"You mean, besides Jacob?"

"Yeah."

Leah answers uncomfortably. "Well, no."

Rosalie somehow manages to sound simultaneously sarcastic and sympathetic. "Right. Good luck with that, then."

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my beta, Babs81410. If anyone's really missing the presence of a full Paul/Rachel lemon in this chapter, let me know. I might post an outtake after the main story is done if there's sufficient demand for one. Additionally, there are still a few days left to put a bid at Tricky Raven's Author/Artist Silent Auction, which I am participating in as an author. So if you've ever envisioned a story but didn't feel like writing it yourself, check it out. It runs through March 15.


	34. Chapter 33

X-x-x-x-X  
June 4  
X-x-x-x-X

Leah doesn't get another chance to revisit her conversation with Jasmine. The next week, she and Rachel move into their new apartment in Seattle, and two days later, Rose and Emmett move into theirs. But immediately after that, Jacob receives an alarming message from Alice. It reads, "The vision I had earlier this spring came true. Tanya found Demitri and Alec in the Cathedral of Quito. We left Ecuador only a day ahead of them. She has convinced them that your pack killed Jane, Felix, and Chelsea. They are going to try to find you through Rose and Emmett. If Rose and Emmett stay in Seattle by themselves, they will die. Please protect them! Alec is going to return to Volterra to ask for help before returning to Washington. I can't tell who, if anyone, is coming back with him, since none of them have made any decisions. You have at least two days."

Jacob calls an emergency pack meeting. It turns out to be the strangest meeting they have ever had. As soon as everyone begins to gather, Jacob's eagle lands on his outstretched arm. That, in and of itself, is no unusual occurrence. But when Collin's peregrine falcon does the same, everyone takes notice. Soon, two bears materialize in the treeline, startling Bella and Jasmine terribly, but the ancient beasts just sit calmly on the outer ring of their circle. When an ancient mountain lion slinks silently into the clearing, no one is surprised when it lowers itself down by Seth.

Jacob decides to increase the wolves on patrol to three at a time. Leah returns immediately, but Jacob asks her to return to Seattle during the fight to ensure Rachel's safety, as his sister is teaching summer classes and is not easily able to return, nor does he want her to come any closer to the battle. He attempts a spirit walk to spy on the vampires, but finds the experience worthless since he is unable to understand Italian. He searches in futility for a way to kill them, but without a nearby spark of fire could only hope to slow them down, and worse yet, reveal his powers to them. He returns to his body more worried than before. He and Billy ask Charlie and Bella to stay on the reservation where they can be better protected, and both reluctantly agree. Billy suggests drawing the confrontation away from the reservation and from Forks to minimize the risk to the local populations, and they agree to attempt to draw the vampires into the unpopulated Olympic National Forest to the east.

When Rosalie and Emmett return that evening, they are immediately attacked by the taxilits. Emmett grins widely as he dodges the coordinated assaults of the two bears, while Rosalie faces off with the mountain lion in a deep crouch. Jacob yells out an Alpha order for the taxilitis to back off, and he quickly discovers that while they will listen to him, he cannot order them in the same way he can order his pack. Billy hastily explains the vampires' identities in rapid-fire Quileute, and the animals retreat, growling.

The Cullens spend hours sparring with their friends. Carefully, Jacob asks Emmett to square off against the large black bear in order to test the animal's fighting prowess, and they quickly discover that although the taxilits are special animals indeed, they possess no unusual physical abilities beyond their intelligence and long lifespans. Were they battling humans for some reason, they would undoubtedly win, but against vampires they are at a disadvantage. Billy muses that perhaps this is why the Quileute warriors gradually lost their spirit powers in exchange for the ability to shift into powerful wolves.

Rosalie visibly enjoys battling Jasmine, but by the end of the session, Jacob has decided to leave Jasmine to guard the reservation. She remains by far the smallest member of the pack, even in wolf form standing several inches shorter than Leah. And after Brady had both his legs broken by Bree in his last battle, Jacob will not bring the youngest wolves into the front lines. He decides that Collin, Brady, and Jasmine will all stay behind to protect the reservation. He asks Collin to remain in spirit form. His cousin should be able to see any vampires approaching the reservation from much farther away.

Collin is the only wolf who accepts the decision gracefully. Brady and Jasmine protest loudly, and Billy sternly reminds them that ensuring the safety of their families, Bella and Charlie, and their home, is not a trivial job. Either way, Jacob will not be swayed, and the argument ends abruptly when Emmett changes the subject.

"Remind me what other powers you guys have. This isn't just going to be a wolf-vamp fight, right?"

"Several of us know how to spirit walk," Jacob explains. "I can go the farthest, basically anywhere, and from here, Collin can get as far as the boundaries of the peninsula. Seth has a range of several miles, and Sam and Embry are can go about as wide as the Rez. Those two can also talk to animals, and Seth can control the weather. The most useful thing in a battle is probably his ability to create a lightning bolt. I have power over the elements. Earth, water, fire, wind. That's how I killed Irina. But I can't generate fire from nothing. My sister lit a match, and I guess I made it more like a fireball."

"How did that work exactly?" frowns Emmett. "If I just stick my hand in a fire, it hurts like hell, but I don't just light up like a Roman candle." He snickers at Jasmine, who is staring at him with big eyes. "What, like if you had one of these weird bodies, you wouldn't test its limits either?"

"It was the venom that lit on fire," Jacob answers. "Same with Bree last year. We had ripped off her arm, so there was plenty of flammable venom. Like gasoline. And Leah had already gotten chunks out of Irina. That's what lit. The open wounds."

"So maybe you and Seth should fight as spirit warriors, not as wolves," Rosalie nods. "How long does it take you to get back into your body if you need to?"

"Basically instantly," Jacob answers.

"It takes me a little longer," Seth adds.

"I wonder what the lightning by itself would do to a vampire," Charlie asks.

With absurd enthusiasm, Emmett yells, "Let's find out!"

"Are you volunteering?" Paul laughs.

He looks thrilled. "Hell, yeah!"

His wife rolls her eyes. "He is volunteering. But I'm not volunteering to put out the flames if he gets lit on fire."

"Not that I'm complaining about gaining the tactical advantage of knowing, but isn't that dangerous?" Charlie asks.

"I stuck a fork in an electrical outlet once," Emmett grins. "It was a total rush! I can't wait to find out what a bolt of lightning will do!"

After several more minutes of debate, everyone retreats back except Emmett, who stays in the center of the clearing, bouncing on the balls of his feet in a way that reminds Bella of Alice. Seth and Jacob both leave their bodies, Jacob's head pillowed in Bella's lap, Seth stretched out on the ground beside him. They rise up, rapidly gathering rain clouds above the reservation. The rest of the pack phases in, as they discover they can see the spirit warriors much more easily when they are in their wolf forms. Bella realizes quickly that she is the only non-wolf able to see Jacob and Seth swirling through the atmosphere when she notices Charlie, Billy, Rose, and Emmett staring blankly at the sky.

Heavy droplets begin to pelt down. "What are you waiting for, you pansies?" Emmett yells at the sky.

The surrounding wolves react with barking laughter, and a bolt of lightning immediately shoots down from the storm cloud above, lancing into Emmett's left shoulder. His back arches dramatically and his face freezes in a painful rictus as every muscle in his body contracts simultaneously. Then the flash is gone, and he drops to the ground, momentarily stunned.

Rosalie rushes over. "Em? Em?"

But he is gone before she has a chance to look him over. "Son of a goddamn bitch!" He sprints to Seth's prone body lying on the forest floor several yards away, leans down, and promptly punches him in the nose with his good arm. "That fucking hurt!" he yells as Seth sits up dazedly, clutching at his nose. Leah's small gray wolf jumps out to protect her brother's body, knocking Emmett to the ground as he grabs at his injured shoulder.

But she doesn't have the chance to do anything else before Rosalie appears by her side, yanks Emmett up by his hair until he is on his knees at her feet, and slaps him hard across the back of the head. "Idiot, you asked for that. Literally!"

"You broke my nose!" Seth whines.

Jacob stands up, holding his hands on his hips and frowning at Emmett, while Rosalie goes to examine Seth. "Oh, it'll be okay," she says, pressing her fingers to the bridge of his nose and making a face at the smell of the lupine blood running down his lip. "I can fix this. It'll hurt for a second, okay? I'll count it down for you. On three. One..." And before she even gets to two, she shoves his nose back into place.

"Aahh!" Seth jumps up and down in pain and surprise. "You said, 'On three!' What's wrong with you people?"

"It wasn't going to feel better on three," Rosalie shrugs. "Best to just get it over with, and less anticipation of the pain."

"You're going to be a terrible doctor!" Seth fumes.

Leah, who had phased back while Rosalie was examining Emmett and Seth, rolls her eyes and steps in front of Emmett, who has pulled his scorched shirt aside to examine the branching black burn line that mars his arm and shoulder. "You know, normally I'm the only one who gets to beat up my baby brother, but that was pretty funny. And I guess we know that lightning doesn't kill you. Kind of a cool scar, though."

"It looks awesome. I always wanted a tattoo, but nothing can mark my skin. I like it," he answers, distracted, poking at his own arm and gingerly trying to rotate the shoulder. "It looks like something amazing happened. I'll have to make up a good story about it."

"Good," she smiles. Then she promptly knees him in the groin, dropping him to his knees with a strangled gasp. "And I am the only one who gets to beat up my baby brother!" she yells, and kicks him once more in the balls for good measure. "Don't you ever lay another hand on him again. Not unless you want me to rip those off with my damn teeth." She turns to Seth. "Does your nose feel better?"

Seth's grin is dramatically red with the blood from his nose. "Much."

The pack erupts with riotous barks of laughter. Paul phases back to human, and without even bothering to finish buttoning up his fly, tackles Leah in a hug and pulls her off her feet. "That's the funniest fucking thing I've ever seen," he howls.

Shocked at his physical display of affection, she freezes. A pink blush covers her cheeks. Jared calls out, "Oh my gosh, she's almost as red as Bella! I didn't even know that was possible! This is officially the best pack meeting ever!"

Leah finally recovers her voice. She squirms in his hold. "Put me down, fucker, or you're next!"

Paul puts her back on her feet, but rather than let her go, he keeps one arms slung over her shoulders. "Aw baby, you're just looking for an excuse to get your hands on my junk," he teases.

She's sputters, "If your junk gets any closer to me, I'll do to you what I just did to Emmett before I yank them right out of you and feed them to Emmett's new dog! And then I'll change the locks on our apartment. And if you think Rachel will let you put your filthy paws on her, you are sorely mistaken. My roomie adheres to the girl code, bro. So you're dangerously close to taking your own punch to the nuts, blue balls, or both!"

He steps away with his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. "Ooh! And here I was hoping to get you both in the sack together. I'll bet you can teach her a few things. We all know it wouldn't be your first time with a girl."

"Oh, you had better run," she yells, but the threat is lessened by her shout of laughter that follows. He phases on the spot and takes off like a rocket. His tattered jeans crumple to the ground.

She sprints after him on two feet, whipping her dress over her head as soon as she thinks she's out of sight from the rest of the pack. She doesn't realize, but she isn't far enough away, so half the pack, and Emmett as well, get an eyeful. As he gingerly stands up, Emmett lets out a low whistle as he strains to watch her retreating form. Seconds before she phases into her wolf, he nudges Sam with his elbow. "Damn, you let that go? What the hell were you thinking?"

It earns him another slap upside the head from his wife. "You are really walking on some thin ice there, sweetheart. Are you trying to get yourself locked out of the house tonight?"

"But baby, you know how horny I get before a fight!" Emmett protests.

Charlie finally puts a stop to the conversation while the teenage boys around them snicker. "Son, no one wants to hear anything you have to say. If you can't contribute anything useful, just keep your damn mouth shut."

It effectively ends the meeting. Night had fallen long ago, and everyone makes their way home after making plans for another bonfire the next night. Jasmine tries not to stare after Jacob and Bella as they wander off together hand in hand in the opposite direction, trailing several yards behind Charlie, who pushes Billy along the well-maintained path.

As they walk through the forest, Jasmine murmurs to Embry, "You guys really like to have bonfires, don't you?"

He shrugs. "Any excuse for a party, I guess."

"The imminent risk of death is a reason to celebrate?"

"Better than lying in bed the night before, staring at the ceiling and wondering if you're coming back the next day," Quil explains.

The weight of what is about to happen finally settles over Jasmine. "This is insane," she breathes.

Quil reassures her with a squeeze of her shoulder. "Don't worry, the fight is going to be miles away. They won't get anywhere near the Rez. You'll be fine."

"It's not me I'm worried about!" she protests.

"He's strong," Embry states. "And smart, and the most powerful spirit warrior since Taha Aki."

"Not just him," she shakes her head. "All of you guys. Like my whole family is on the line here. All three of my cousins, and two of them are even younger than me, and Collin is such a sweetheart." She gestures ahead of them, where Brady and Collin walk, occupied with their own conversation. She looks at both Embry and Quil. "You guys have been amazing ever since I phased. Even before I phased. You've both been so good to me ever since I moved back. Jared has been so supportive, nothing but nice. Paul's helped me with so much wolf stuff. Talking me down when Jacob's away, or helping me learn to phase. Sam's kept me out of trouble at every turn. What are the odds that none of you will get hurt?"

"Good thing we heal fast," Quil replies casually.

"But those things are so strong. And vicious. I've seen the fights in everyone's memories. I can't believe everyone has survived so far."

"Almost didn't," Embry nods. "But that just goes to show you. Our purpose is to kill them. We're built to be able to do it."

"Well," she says, looking down at herself, "somebody kind of screwed up when they made me."

Embry laughs. "You're sort of, um, dainty for a wolf."

"You're not full Quileute, right?" Quil asks.

"No. Part Irish."

"It must be that, plus being a girl, and phasing so early in your transformation, that leaves you so tiny," Embry muses.

"Which is still way bigger than a normal wolf. I'm just such a freak," she sighs.

"Hey, don't talk that way." Quil throws his arm over her shoulders. "You're the cutest wolf, that's for sure."

"I think Leah has that title locked up," Jasmine blushes and shakes her head.

Embry blurts out, "Leah is not cute. Leah is se..." He shuts his mouth abruptly when he realizes that he is talking out loud.

Jasmine and Quil simultaneously burst into laughter. "Just finish the sentence, man," Quil grins. "It's not like we don't know what you were thinking."

"Shut up," Embry mumbles, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"No, no. You're right. Leah is drop dead sexy," Quil answers.

"I didn't say that!" Embry protests.

Jasmine giggles, "You were thinking it. Also, ew, that's my cousin." Then she giggles some more at the way Embry's ears turn red. "No, no, I'm just teasing!"

Quil chuckles, "Hell, man, it's not like we all haven't thought it. Got our asses kicked for it. Sort of hard not to after you've been in Sam's brain."

"What about the imprint?" Jasmine asks, surprised. She has spent a little time with Sam, but most of it was when she was first phased. She had been too consumed by her own new imprint, and he with trying to keep her from being a danger to anyone, to notice what else might have gone through his mind.

"The imprint didn't erase his memories," Embry explains. "He thinks about her sometimes. You know how it is. You can try to block your thoughts from the rest of the pack, but it's sort of impossible."

Quil snorts. "We all know a hell of a lot about all the girls our brothers have ever been with. Leah included."

"Leah more than any others, except Em and Kim, obviously," Embry nods.

"I didn't realize that," Jasmine blinks. "I mean, I knew about their history, and the last time I phased in with Sam, he was definitely thinking about Leah and Emily, but nothing, um, explicit."

"We're not complete pigs," Quil says. "Believe it or not, when we phase in with you we try not to be too inappropriate."

Embry continues, "But we all have better control than we did when we first phased. Sam didn't always have a great filter. He's got lots of memories of Leah. And when she first phased in, it was like they were reliving everything again."

"We all saw," Quil adds. "There was no avoiding it."

"How awful!" Jasmine breathes, suddenly thankful that none of the wolves have any intimate knowledge of her. "And you've all seen her half dressed, so between that and Sam's memories..."

"Much less than half dressed," Embry mutters. At Jasmine's glare, he throws his hands up. "Sorry, sorry."

"Oh my gosh, you guys are a bunch of pigs, lusting after my poor cousin!"

Neither of the boys deny it. There isn't any point. But Quil tries to explain. "But it's not like Sam just remembers the sex. He was in love with her. Not like a kid's crush. He wanted to marry her. Why do you think that nobody ever made a move on her?"

"I thought you were all afraid of her," Jasmine smiles, then laughs when she realizes just how correct her joke is. Then she sighs. "I remember when they got engaged. My mom was kind of upset about it. I mean, she was so young."

"Well," Quil sighs, "It's not like he's over her. It wasn't too long ago that he wanted to run off with her. Would have, too, if she hadn't said no."

"How was it that the imprint didn't stop him?" Jasmine asks, confused.

Embry looks to Quil. Another imprinted wolf can explain this better than he can. Quil catches his look and answers, "He has real feelings for Leah. Always will. The imprint on Emily pushed them aside, but it couldn't get rid of them. It took him a while to recognize what happened, and by then it was too late. She wasn't going to take him back."

Jasmine is silent for few minutes, absorbing the new information. She has sensed this before, this thread of discontent weaving its way through Sam's mind, but had not recognized it for what it was. In human form, with the wolf currently slumbering, the tangled mess of relationships is easier to process. Finally, she asks Quil, "So what about you? What do you think it means for you and Claire?"

Quil frowns and looks at his feet. "The elders told me that we'll probably be together when she gets old enough. But they also told me that I'm supposed to be what she needs. Supposed to be what's best for her. And what that is, right now, is for me to be her big brother. And there's no way that what's best for that sweet little girl is for her big brother to start..." He pauses, his voice sounding strangled, and he finally chokes out, "..._wanting _her when she becomes a teenager. It's fucking sick, and I'm not doing it."

"How are you going to stop it?" she asks, her eyes wide.

Quil looks her in the eye, and he is startled to realize that she wants very badly to know. "When I can, when it's safe, I'm going to stop phasing. It's not going to get rid of the imprint, I'm pretty sure. But when I'm phased, I feel like I really am the wolf more than I am a man."

She nods. "I know what you mean."

"Yeah. So I figure me and the wolf, we need to stay away from each other. But either way, if I can start aging again, I'll always look way older than her. I figure she's a lot less likely to develop those kinds of feelings for me if, when she's a teenager, I don't look like one too. And if she keeps looking at me like her big brother, she'll still feel like my little sister, and that's perfect."

By now they have reached Brady's home. He shouts out the kitchen window that there are leftovers for her to eat, so she gives hugs to both Embry and Quil before disappearing inside. Later that night, as she stares at the ceiling, she thinks about Quil's decision as she falls asleep. When she dreams, she dreams of warm, strong arms around her.

X-x-x-x-X

The next day, there is no sparring, but there is further news. Jacob had sent a reply to Alice's email, but as promised, there was no reply. She had deactivated the account as soon as she had sent the message. So he is surprised when another message appears the next day from a new account. "Alec has returned to Volterra to recruit assistance. Demitri and Tanya are waiting in New York for him to return. Caius despises werewolves and will return with them. Aro is not willing to help, and I have spent the last day trying to figure out why. The Romanian and Egyptian covens have united to overthrow him, and he has pulled most of the guard around him to repel the threat. He wanted Alec to stay in order to help them fight, but when Alec refused, Aro attempted to retain him by force. He used his power to escape. Chelsea's mate, Afton, wants revenge and is returning with him. They have also recruited Gianna. Aro wanted to drink her, but Caius turned her instead, so she will follow him wherever he goes. Their futures disappear in the middle of the night tomorrow, in the heart of the Olympic National Forest, so I can only assume that is where you will meet them. Good luck."

Jacob gathers the pack together again, this time in the tribal center, inviting Emmett and Rosalie to join them. Rosalie has had access to the reservation for some time, and the pack extends the same exception for Emmett. Emily, Kim, and Bella join them as well, as Jacob doesn't have the heart to separate them the day before the battle. Leah is the only wolf missing, as she has returned to Seattle to ensure Rachel's safety, and Paul looks nothing short of relieved that his imprint will be so far from the action.

Rosalie had taken photographs of the portraits of the Volturi hanging in Carlisle's study, then sketched portraits of the remaining vampires. She shows them the likenesses and gives them further details about their enemy. "Alec is the most dangerous. Dangerous enough to escape Aro and take allies with him. Take him out first. He is actually much more powerful than Jane was. Although her ability to inflict pain was overwhelming, it could only affect one individual at a time. Alec can render multiple enemies senseless at the same time. No sight, sound, touch, feel, anything. You'll feel nothing, and then someone will kill you. You literally won't even know what hit you. So if he sees all of us running toward him, before we even get close enough to strike, we'll all be paralyzed, and then they'll make easy pickings of us."

"Wonderful," Paul sighs. "So how do we get past him?"

"In spirit form," Jacob answers.

"I have no idea if he will have any power over your spirit forms, but it's definitely worth a shot. If you can get to him, Alec isn't a fighter. He doesn't know how, and he's small. He stands back behind a line of bodyguards, and renders his enemy senseless. If you can get close enough without being overwhelmed by his power, he'll go down quickly. The other dangerous power is Afton's. He can render himself invisible. So you'll have to rely on your other senses to fight him."

"Senses which we won't have, thanks to Alec," says Jared dryly.

Rosalie replies, "Right. Unless we've taken out Alec already. But Alec and Afton will be the most vicious. Alec will want revenge for his sister, and Afton will want revenge for his wife, Chelsea."

"Whom we didn't even touch!" Paul growls. "I don't suppose they'll care about that though, will they?"

"They'll never believe you when you say you didn't," Emmett answers.

"So who are the rest of them, and what can they do?" Seth asks, getting back to the point.

"Caius will be every bit as cruel as Alec and Afton. He hates werewolves so much that he is going against Aro to come here. It's a terrible mistake, and if he survives this battle, Aro will kill him."

"Why isn't Aro coming?" Jacob asks.

Rosalie turns to him. "Aro has ruled for centuries by being smart, not rash. His ability is invaluable, of course, being able to read your entire memory with just one touch. But he knows exactly how to wield that power, and how to retain the power he has. He isn't going to risk himself by getting in a petty battle with a bunch of wolves who don't threaten his power base, not even wolves who might have killed the most powerful members of his guard. Perhaps if he wasn't occupied with defending himself against the Romanians and Egyptians, he would come with Caius just to hold the guard together, just to please Caius. But he knows he can't afford it right now."

Sam frowns. "Then how come Caius is coming? Why doesn't he know better?"

"Caius was nearly killed by the Children of the Moon, true werewolves, not shifters like yourselves, a thousand years ago. He is a cruel ruler with a passionate grudge. True werewolves are extinct thanks to him. He probably couldn't turn down the chance to battle wolves again."

Emmett pipes up. "And maybe he's just throwing his hand in with Alec. After all, like you said Rose, Alec really is the most powerful member they have left."

"Caius has no ability, no power per se, unless you count sadism," Rosalie explains.

"And the others?" Billy asks.

Rosalie continues, "Demetri is a tracker. The very best tracker in the world. It is why they sent him after our family. He is a very good fighter. As cunning as he is strong. Gianna was human the last time we saw her. She was their receptionist."

Paul snorts. "They're bringing their secretary?"

"I'm quite surprised Caius turned her, actually. I think it just goes to show how desperate they are for numbers. For backup. I have no idea if she has any kind of power. Doubtful, or else they would have turned her long ago and never toyed with her in that ridiculous job. But she will have newborn strength. Lastly, Tanya is likely to be a capable fighter, but that's all."

Emmett snorts. "Not unless she wants to fuck you to death."

"Em," Rosalie glares at him. "Not helpful."

"But she's the one who knows about us, right?" Sam asks.

"Yes, in theory. We had told her coven about the existence of shifters in the time of your great grandfathers, and she knows you killed Laurent. But she knows nothing about your spirit powers, as we did not even know of those parts of your legends. And we never told her or Irina that Jacob and Bella survived."

"So they know we're wolves, but not, uh, real werewolves? What's a real werewolf, anyway?" asks Jasmine, confused.

Rosalie looks down her nose at Jasmine, but answers her question anyway. "The kind you see in movies. The sort that only turn during a full moon, that lose their humanity when the animal takes over. The kind that murder humans during a phase and wake up the next day, naked and covered in blood and completely confused. Who can only be killed with silver, whose bite turns its victims into its own kind. Every bit as monstrous as vampires."

The explanation prompts another question from Jasmine. "Does silver do anything to us?"

Sam shakes his head. "No different than any other metal."

Darkly, Jared mutters, "Who needs silver when you've got a leech who can render us all deaf and blind?"

For the next hour, the pack strategizes. But eventually, there is nothing left to do but wait. Rosalie and Emmett leave to hunt and build their strength. Everyone else moves the meeting to the beach, and it turns into a party.

Paul and Jared retrieve kegs of Miguel's microbrew and cases of liquor and mixes. Charlie shrugs at Billy, overturns the crates, and makes himself the bartender.

The gathering spreads out, little pockets of people forming, breaking away, shifting, and coming back together. Conversations ebb and flow between boisterous laughter and somber concerns. The evening wears on. Family members appear one by one bearing heaping stacks of food, and it disappears as quickly as it arrives. Bella somehow finds herself standing next to Jasmine slightly apart from the main group. Jacob is on the other side of the large fire. At a loss for something to say, she mumbles awkwardly, "You'd better get some before the boys destroy all the food."

Jasmine smiles stiffly at her. "Not hungry, thanks though."

"Me neither. I kind of feel like my stomach is going to eat itself, but putting food in there will only speed the process."

"That's it. That's it exactly. It's this gnawing feeling right here." Jasmine holds her fist over her stomach.

"It's going to feel like that until he's back home and safe," Bella says softly.

"I wish I was going with him. I wish I could keep him safe."

"Me too. And I'm kind of jealous. You actually stand a shot at being able to help him. Me? Not so much. Just a clumsy troublemaker."

Jasmine turns to look at her, frowning. "You? Jealous of me? If I were you, I'd want to kill me."

"I don't think I'd be able to win that fight," Bella smiles, and both girls laugh uncomfortably, drawing stares from the entire assembled group, Jacob in particular. He stares at Bella with his eyebrows raised, clearly wanting to know if she needs to be rescued. She shakes her head with a little smile and ducks behind her hair.

Jasmine cocks her head to the side. "But seriously. How come you're being so nice to me? I mean, between your leg and your boyfriend, I haven't exactly been on my best behavior. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's just harder to hate you when you're being nice."

Bella shoves her hands in her pockets and squeezes her lips together. "Um, sorry? It's just, I know what happened the night you phased, it was an accident. I really have hurt myself worse. And I don't mean to sound all snotty or something, but it's hard to be really mad at you when, well, frankly, you're one of my worst nightmares come true, but here you are, and..."

"He's still yours," Jasmine finishes, biting back the urge to add, _for now._

Bella's breath leaves her in a sigh. "Yeah. I was terrified about him imprinting. It's the biggest reason it took me so long to let myself fall for him. Or admit that I'd fallen for him. It had already happened; I was just too scared to admit it to myself."

"Right," Jasmine nods, oddly enough, understanding Bella perfectly. "The only thing worse is him getting hurt."

"And you know, I've been there before. Heard him get hurt. Watched him writhing in pain, half his body smashed. And I only made it worse, which I'm sure you know. Biggest mistake of my life."

Now Jasmine can't quite keep the bitterness out of her voice. "You're lucky he forgave you. Lucky he took you back after that."

"I am," Bella says very quietly. She knows even better than Jasmine just how true it is, on every level. "I'm very, very lucky." She takes another deep breath, and looks up just in time to see Jacob moving to approach them. She stops him with a tiny shake of her head. "But anyway, I can hardly blame you for having a crush on Jake. He's very crush-worthy."

Jasmine sniffs, "I'd hardly call it a crush," before her face falls. "Sorry, sorry, that sounded bitchy. It's just hard."

Bella chews her lip and decides to take a risk. "Can I ask you something?"

"I guess," Jasmine answers reluctantly.

"What is it you like about Jake?"

Jasmine is taken aback. "Excuse me?"

Bella babbles, "I mean, I know he's a great guy. I know why I love him. And it's personal, I get it, and the weirdest thing I could possibly ask you."

Jasmine cuts her off. "No, no, it's okay. You just surprised me. I mean, he's my imprint."

"Yeah," Bella admits. "But that's not why you like him. Not really. That's something else. A mystical pull. You liked him before. Why?"

Jasmine blinks at her in surprise, and without knowing why, starts to answer. "Well, he's kind, and he's got that smile. He's funny, and he's smart. When we were little kids, he was considerate. He always lent me a hand if I needed help with anything. And now he's strong, and he's powerful, he actually gets what kind of freak I am, but around him I'm not a freak, because I'm the same thing he is. And he's..."

Bella makes an odd sound that is half cough, half laugh. "And he looks like that," she finishes, gesturing at him vaguely.

Jasmine's jaw drops open. That is what she meant, but she wasn't going to say it out loud. "Okay..."

"So, of course all those things are true," Bella continues. "But can I make a couple points?"

"Can I stop you?" Jasmine blurts out. After a prolonged silence, one shared by the multiple people sitting within hearing distance of them, both girls chuckle stiffly.

Bella buries her face in her hands when she realizes that even her father is gawking at them. "Oh god. This will go down in tribal history as the most awkward conversation ever. Only I can get myself into these things. It'll be legendary."

"Billy will make a tale out of it. He'll tell his great grandchildren about the showdown between the great spirit chief's girlfriend and his imprint, and how you managed to literally kill us both with embarrassment." Then they both burst into honest, unrestrained laughter, breaking the tension. Once she finally stops laughing, Jasmine wipes her eyes and sighs, "Okay, okay. Go ahead. Ask away."

"Oh, um, so we were talking about how awesome Jake is, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"So you just listed a bunch of qualities that are true of, like, the entire pack. Especially Quil and Embry, whom you've known just as long. So what's the connection with Jake specifically, I mean, besides the imprint?" She doesn't wait for an answer. She presses on. "I mean, I love all those things about Jake. Every single one of them. But they're not why I love him. I also love the thousand other things about him that I've discovered in the years I've known him, and all the things I haven't learned yet but will. I love him because of how I feel when I'm with him. I love him because he's made me feel that way ever since I can remember, and because I'm good at making him feel that way too. I love him because he makes me the best version of me, and I hope I do the same for him. I love him because he's always been the sun to me. He's the definition of love for me, Jasmine," she whispers, so low that no one else can hear. Except Jacob, who has moved behind her.

His warm arms wrap around her waist. "Oh honey. Me too," he murmurs in her ear. He tugs her away in the direction of his garage, not bothering to give Jasmine more than a glance and a little wave.

She watches them go, trying not to think about what she knows they will be doing for the next few hours. Seth appears beside her and tugs her in for a gentle hug. "You okay?"

Jasmine nods quietly. She isn't, but there is no point in admitting it. "I'll be fine." She tears her eyes away from Jacob's retreating form. "Right," she whispers quietly. "He doesn't make me feel that way."

Seth says reassuringly, "Somebody else will someday."

Her imprint buries it, but a small voice inside Jasmine's mind tries to call out that somebody already does.

Jacob and Bella head back to his home hand in hand. Bella finds herself walking in front of Jacob and tugging him gently forward. When he finally slows down so much that he nearly stops, she turns to face him. He has a little furrow on his brow, and his lips are pinched tightly together.

"What is it?"

"I don't want to do this," he says quietly, eyes locked on their joined hands. He traces a circle on the back of her hand. "I don't want to be this."

"Be what?" she asks gently.

"A monster who kills monsters."

She reaches out with her free hand and tugs him in, wrapping both arms around his waist and squeezing tightly, her cheek pressed into his chest. He is stiff under her hands. "The last thing you are is a monster, Jacob Black. Just like Rose isn't a monster, and neither is Carlisle. But even they are fighting their inner demons to be good. But what's in you, what's in the core of you, is the most wonderful man I've ever met. Every single power you possess, the wolf inside you and the things you can do, they're all there so you can protect people. Not hurt them. Everything about you is good."

He relaxes infinitesimally, his arms surrounding her, his nose buried in her hair. "But I'm going to send my brothers into battle while I leave my body behind. I'm sending them in to get hurt, and I won't even be with them in my wolf form to fight."

"You'll be with them, of course you will! You'll be helping them by doing things that none of the rest of them can do. You're doing what they need you to do. And you'll be right alongside them."

So softly she barely hears it, he whispers, "But I don't want to be. I don't want to go. I don't want them to go. I don't want any of us to do any of this. I want this to be summer vacation. I want to go swimming with you tomorrow. I want to fix up my Mustang with Quil and Embry, and then take you on a road trip. I want to crash on Rachel and Leah's couch and wander around Seattle. I want to save enough money to visit Rebecca in Hawaii. I don't want to fight monsters, and I don't want them to fight me."

Bella buries her face in his shirt and tries to blink away her tears. When her voice is steady, she answers, "Okay. But I think we'll have to wait until Friday to go swimming. I think you're busy tomorrow. And then maybe Seattle on Saturday, if you want."

He freezes at her answer, then she feels him shake against her. She peers up at him, worried that he is crying. She knows she wants to cry. But instead, he looks down at her with warm eyes. She still sees the fear behind them, but mostly, she sees affection and humor. After he stops laughing, he responds, "Okay. Swimming on Friday it is. Maybe we can pack a picnic."

She smiles back up at him, and simply making that gesture calms her own growing panic. "I can make those sandwiches you like. You know, the corned beef with the turkey and the coleslaw?"

He grins back at her. "On that really thick bread from the bakehouse?"

"Sure, sure. With two slices of swiss cheese and the dressing you like. And I'll pack some warm sodas, and I'll bake cookies."

"Leah's peanut butter chocolate ones?"

"Yeah. I'll make whatever you want."

"Will you wear a bikini at the beach?" He waggles his eyebrows at her.

"I don't own a bikini."

"Can we go bikini shopping Friday morning?" he presses on.

"You're sort of milking this whole thing, aren't you?"

"It's gotta be worth something," he whines. "Please? I'll have something to look forward to."

"Fine," she laughs. "Bikini shopping before a picnic at the beach on Saturday."

"Can I come into the dressing room with you?"

"You're really pushing your luck, mister!"

He whispers, "That wasn't exactly a no." Then he lowers his lips to hers, and she sees that the dread has disappeared from his face, and nothing is left behind except gratitude and love.

When they separate from the warm kiss, it is no longer difficult to tug him along the path. For a few minutes, they feel like normal teenagers sneaking away from their parents for a private tryst. When the trees part in front of them, revealing his little red house, they don't bother going inside. Their fathers could return at any moment. They slip into his garage.

A small part of Bella misses the run down shack that it used to be, since it was the place that she fell in love with her Jacob. But its expanded space, now large enough for both his Rabbit and Mustang, certainly affords them better privacy. He reaches up to slide the door down, and they are enveloped in darkness. When she reaches out to flip on the light, he catches her hand. "We don't want them to know we're in here, and they could be back any minute."

"But I can't see anything," she protests.

He leads her off to the side. "It's okay. I can." And then her legs bump against the broken down loveseat.

The old furniture sags beneath her when she sits down. "You need a new chair," she says.

She can hear his smile in the dark. "But this one has such good memories, Bells."

"Right," she giggles, "Worked its way into the upholstery. Along with lots of other... stuff." She can't make herself say anything more descriptive.

He feigns confusion. "What stuff? I don't know what you mean."

"You know," she laughs. "Our... stuff."

With mock anger, he prompts, "Our what? Did you spill some soda on my precious chair?"

She can't help herself. "No. We spilled our love all over your precious loveseat."

He snorts in response and tighens his arm around her shoulder. "Oh, man. Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"

She giggles hysterically. "No. Lovejuice. The kids are calling it lovejuice."

He barks his answering laugh. "Crap. I don't think I can take you seriously anymore. And here I was, all ready to get this couch all filthy again with you, but I'm not sure I can have sex with a girl who just said the word 'lovejuice'."

She startles him by running her hand up his thigh and cupping him through his shorts, finding him starting to stiffen. "Hmm. I'm pretty sure you're getting ready right now."

He relaxes back into the cushions and enjoys her hands on him. "What do you expect? It's you here with me talking about sex while sitting here."

"Sitting here? Does it mean something to you in particular?" She slides her hands up his shirt to feel his hot skin, and he obligingly whips it off. She wishes she could turn on a light to see him better.

"Are you kidding me?" he chuckles. "A guy never forgets where he has his first time."

"Hmm. Maybe I need a reminder," she says, popping the button on his shorts and tugging the zipper down. By the time his shorts are on the floor, he is completely stiff and very sensitive.

He runs his fingers through her hair and down to her shoulder, trying to pull her into his lap. "A reenactment?"

She resists his pull and wraps both hands around him. She still can't see much of anything in the inky blackness, but the weight and heat of him in her palms reminds her of exactly how beautiful his cock is, how good he tastes. "Just hang on a second." She swipes her thumb over the broad head, brings it to her lips and savors his salty flavor.

"Damn," he hisses. "It's so sexy when you do that."

She searches for his eyes, but can only make out his outline. "You can see me? I can't see you."

His voice is even huskier than usual. "Yeah. You look beautiful."

She releases him to pull her own shirt off, revealing his favorite lacy black push up bra, which she slowly unclasps and drops on the floor. "Then watch me do this," she murmurs, licking her lips. And she lowers herself to kneel between his legs and takes him in both hands once more.

She doesn't waste any time. She has no idea how long it will be until their fathers return to the house and start wondering where they are, and she absolutely must have him inside her before that happens. She would rather make love to him all night long, cling to his body, inhaling his musk, feeling his sweat mingling with hers, kiss him until her lips are raw and swollen, and preferably never let him go. Not let him leave her behind while he walks straight into danger once more. But no matter what she does, he has to leave, and she has to let him.

She silences the shrill voice wailing inside her brain that this might be the last time she makes love with him by concentrating all her five senses on the man in front of her.

She starts with touch. She kneels up and leans forward, holding him to her chest and tipping him back and forth so that his penis nuzzles her breasts. He stiffens, and although she cannot see him, she knows that he is gawking at sight of himself cradled in her cleavage. She presses her breasts together with her arms and envelops the back of his dick with her hands, stroking up and down. He stiffens further.

"Do you like it when I touch you?" she asks.

"You know I do," he breathes. She does. She feels exactly what she is doing to him in her own sex.

"Do you want more?"

"Yeah. I do, I do."

She keeps her left hand wrapped around his base and licks the palm of her right, lowering it back to cradle the head, smoothing and twisting until all he feels is heat and pleasure and her. When he leans his head back with a groan, and she knows that he is probably struggling to keep his eyes open, she pulls back to give herself more room and starts to pump with both hands.

Then she focuses on sound, trying to ignore the needs of her own body. At first his breathing is heavier, harsh in her ears. But as she starts long, tight strokes with one fist tight above the other, he lets out a long, continuous sigh. She switches to a firm hold of his base with her left hand while she concentrates on the head with her right, and the sigh becomes broken gasps. And when she lowers her left hand to roll his heavy balls gently, he starts to buck his hips upward and groan.

Next, she focuses on smell. She stops pumping to hold him still and leans in to kiss her way down his shaft. She keeps her lips closed, giving him pecks on his skin that would seem innocent anywhere else on his body, and breathes him in. He smells like heat, something she didn't know was possible before she started paying such close attention to him. And when she nuzzles at his sac with the tip of her nose, murmuring sweetly, "Do you like Eskimo kisses?" he shakes with happy laughter. She inhales deeply. He is musk and Jacob and all man, and if she weren't already on her knees, they would be weak beneath her. And then he can smell her own arousal through her jeans and the black lace panties she wears for his benefit, and he twines his fingers in her hair. "Please?" he asks with a shaking voice.

So she tastes him. She snakes out her tongue to circle around each testicle, pulling a deep moan from his throat, pulls her tongue up along his shaft, and fills her mouth with him. She concentrates on pulling salty liquid from the tip of him, feels it spread out over her tongue and slide down her throat. She hums around him and squirms as she feels the terribly odd and wonderful sensation of the ghost of her own tongue on her clitoris. She massages his skin with her tongue and feels the ridge of his corona just inside her teeth, and she drinks him in as if she can keep part of him here with her. He is salty and soft and hard all at once. He is human and male and hers. His fingers are tight against her scalp, and she wishes more of his skin was pressed against hers.

And then all her senses are full of him, and secondhand, of herself. She wants him. Wants more of him. Wants all of him. She uses her tongue, her lips, her hands, herself to please him, to give him memories of pure pleasure to sustain him in the nightmare that he will walk into, and tries to think about the moment he will return back to her arms and to her body. The sensations overwhelming him push away his fears, but they aren't enough to destroy her own.

So she is grateful when he pulls her up with shaking arms and crushes her against him. His voice is harsh. "I need you. I need all of you." She allows herself to be assaulted with his kisses until they both realize that she can't get her pants off without separating from him momentarily. Together they laugh with frustration as they get their arms tangled together, both trying to pull down her jeans, but actually just getting in each other's way.

"Wait, let me." She pushes his hands away and strips off her jeans, but when she hooks her thumbs in her panties, he puts his hand on her wrist.

"I want to do that."

She straightens up as one of his arms wraps around her waist, and he buries his face in her belly. He murmurs quiet words against her skin, too low for her to hear, before kissing his way to the edge of the lace and then flicking his tongue to trace it. Slowly, very slowly, he draws the scrap of fabric down her legs and tosses them away.

He breathes her in just as she did to him only minutes before, his fingers digging into her hips.

And then he leans back in the seat, pulling her down and pleading with her to sit on his cock. He guides her into place and she takes him in, inch by inch.

It burns. It always burns at first. His girth is too great for it to be another way. She loves it. She doesn't feel incomplete when their bodies are separate, not exactly, since he helped her learn that she is a whole being on her own. But this is so, so much better.

He twitches and throbs inside her. She can feel his pulse deep inside her body. Now, even in the dark, just inches away from his face she can finally see his eyes, and she knows that he sees only her. She starts to move, but he holds her still. "Hang on. Just give me a minute. I'm gonna... I'm gonna..." She can feel in the tension locking his muscles together just how close he is after the touch of her hands and tongue.

"Yes," she says, rolling her hips against him. "Yes. I want you to come in me. I want to feel you in me."

"Unhhh," he groans and squeezes her tighter. "But you're not there yet."

"Doesn't matter. I want it. And you'll stay hard, I know you will. You're still going to fuck me. We're not going to stop." She clenches her pussy around him for emphasis. She's right, of course. Some combination of teenage boy plus Alpha werewolf plus Jake himself and naked Bella renders him absurdly hard even after an orgasm. And her words make him even more painfully aroused. She grabs his shoulders, slides up his dick, and with a sultry, "Let go," starts to ride him.

He arches his back and pushes up his hips with a happily defeated epithet echoing off the walls of the garage. She moves up and down, up and down, up and down, and that's all it takes. He pulls her onto him as tightly as he can and buries his face in her neck, climaxing as he moans her name.

Between the feeling of his broad head pulsing against her cervix, the warmth bathing her from the inside, his pubic bone grinding against her swollen clitoris, and most of all, the mysterious connection between their bodies, she shakes with a small orgasm of her own.

And just as she predicted, when he regains his senses and separates his lips from her neck, he growls, "You're right. We're not done. I'm going to fuck you so damn hard now, baby."

He holds her firmly against him and flips them over so that she is curled under him, still joined. The jostling movement causes aftershocks to ripple through him, and to extend her own orgasm. He braces one arm on the back of the seat and keeps her firmly in place with the other around her waist, and he sets a firm, slow rhythm. With every entry of her body, she spasms around him.

They use their bodies to forget where they are and what tomorrow will bring. It is easier here, in this enclosed space, their own sanctuary, where she can see nothing but the outline of him above her and the glow of his eyes pinning her in place more firmly even than his arms. Here and now there is nothing else but the other person, her heat rising but still cool against his overheated skin, her small body somehow accommodating everything he has to give her, her moans filling the air around them, his very favorite sounds. Right now, they are just a boy and a girl in lust and in love, moving together in a manner that makes the world fall away.

The night is unusually warm, making her skin slick and flushed, the meeting of their sexes generating extraordinary heat. Despite his large size against her small one, he enters her, again and again, with no pain whatsoever, the initial burning she felt now replaced by the sweetest friction.

"Fuck, Jacob. I feel you," she moans.

"Tell me. I want to hear."

"Your... You..." she pants, trying to speak between her involuntary gasps with each entry. "It's... It's dripping...down my thighs." She pauses to suck in air. "You feel... so good... I want... I want... more."

He grins at her ferally and picks up the pace. He loves it when his sweet girl talks about him in this fashion, and she makes it difficult to restrain himself. "You want me... Unhhh... to fill you up?"

"It makes me... crazy," she whispers, a little embarrassed, but mostly excited to know her effect on him. "I want... everything... ohhhh... you can give me."

He growls and pulls his arm out from under her waist, slipping his thumb between them to circle her clitoris, causing her to throw her head back with an incoherent sound. "You're so wet," he moans, momentarily stilling his hips to feel her pulse around him as he pleasures her. He draws his finger to his lips for a taste before touching her again. "It's me and you. My cum all over your pussy."

His hand and his voice trigger a bigger orgasm, stronger than the small ones he stimulated with his firm strokes. She tries to call his name, but only a broken semblance comes out.

"Fuck. Fuck," he hisses. He doesn't stop the movement of his finger while he resumes thrusting, once, twice, three times. She finally has to grab at his wrist when she becomes oversensitive. "Sorry, too much?" He stills.

"'Sokay," she mumbles as she catches her breath. Then she reaches around his neck to pull him in for a long kiss, and his mouth on her is so soft and tender that she nearly forgets he hasn't come again. After minutes of the gentle caresses, she playfully nips at his bottom lip. "We're not done yet, are we?" She tilts her head so that she can kiss a path down his neck and savor the salt on his skin.

He responds by pulling out of her suddenly, and she cries out in surprise. But then he flips her onto her knees, pulls her hands up to brace them against the back of the loveseat, presses his hand to guide her back into an arch, and is back inside her.

This is the animal inside him. The man has made love with his Bells. Now it is the wolf's turn to mate. The position allows the very deepest access to her. The dip of her back as he holds her in place ensures that he strokes against her g-spot with every movement. So he moves again and again, pleasing her immeasurably and with pure satisfaction for himself.

It is a possession. A claiming of the gift she has made of herself, given both completely and without hesitation. He growls, a continuous, rolling sound from deep inside his chest, and her whimpers unconsciously harmonize with him. He slides one hand around to tug, squeeze, and pull at her breasts, and she forgets everything but him. There is no one else, no other men, no other loves, no other wishes or desires or dreams. She is here, and he is here, and nothing else matters.

He curls his back and shifts his hand from her breast to her belly to hold her in place. He buries his face in her hair as he holds her still, pistoning into her in a steady, hard rhythm that is deliberately not fast enough to push her over the edge again. He is overwhelms her with his singular focus on her, and she struggles not to collapse into the cushions.

She shakes under him, and ripples begin to blossom inside her. He grins as he feels the sensation and brushes her hair aside so that he might tongue the mark on her shoulder. She moans deeply, and he is enormously pleased. He gradually picks up speed, but maintains his depth. Torturing her like this pleases him enormously, the reacting fluttering of her walls a sweet reward.

But when she feels his teeth replace his tongue against her skin, knowing that he is going to claim her again, she chokes out, "Wait, wait!" And he stills inside her. "I want to taste you too," she whispers.

So he reluctantly pulls out, and she turns to him. He grabs her by her hips and wraps her around his body, taking the few steps to the wall, and he braces her against it. And then he slides her down his shaft. The aching stretch of him brings her back to the brink. He growls and has no more words, only feral and carnal sounds.

She is trapped, and she hopes that she never breaks free. He carefully resumes pounding into her, and she immediately starts trembling again. He slides his hands around her back, absorbing the blows of his movements against the wall with his own arms. Her nails dig deliciously into his shoulderblades, and he hisses at the wonderfully sharp sensation. It gives her courage to take what she wants. She drops her head forward and laps at the pool of sweat in the dip above his clavicle, and he is the most sinful thing she has ever tasted, and the most satisfying. Now she understands why he marks her during their most passionate couplings. She suckles and kisses and licks at his skin, wanting more and more and more of him, wanting to press herself so closely that they become indistinguishable from one another, so they can never be parted, never be alone. She wants to drink him in, fill her being with his energy, his heat, his love, and be consumed fully by him in return.

So she does. Finally, she gives in to her base desire. She closes her teeth over the tender skin of his neck, and they shatter together. He fills her with everything he has to give, and she gives him her body as his home.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks as always to my beta, Babs81410.


	35. Chapter 34

X-x-x-x-X  
June 5  
X-x-x-x-X

The next day, they wake to the sound of their fathers' voices and clinking pans drifting into the open door of his bedroom. Just like the last eve of battle, Charlie and Billy had understood their unspoken need to sleep together. After they snuck out of the garage, they went for a looping walk through the woods so that they might appear to have come from the opposite direction, and they entered the house hand in hand. Bella was certain that they could smell Jacob on her, with or without supernatural senses, and for a few seconds, her biggest worry was not the possibility of Jacob's impending death at the hands of vampires, but rather the mundane anxiety that her father would realize what they have been doing and just shoot him.

But her father, either due to true or willful ignorance, chose to interpret her obvious tension as fear for the upcoming day. This was due, perhaps, to the fact that Jacob himself, normally bright and cheerful, showed just as much stress as Bella herself. Perhaps more. The few minutes it took them to make their winding way back to the house were enough for him to remember the threat hanging over them.

So when Charlie asked casually, "Where'd you kids wander off to?"

Bella answered, "Just walking, nowhere in particular."

He didn't press further. Instead, he held up his beer. "I've had one too many. Mind if we crash here? I was thinking of just sleeping in the twins' room."

She examined his suspiciously sober-appearing eyes and nodded gratefully at him. "Of course." Jacob squeezed her hand.

Charlie pretended not to notice the way Jacob was hanging tightly onto his daughter. "Keep the door open, okay guys?" And they disappeared into the back. After quick showers, they climbed into his bed and fell asleep wrapped up together. But the moment never came when their bodies relaxed fully. They never rolled apart, instead clinging to each other through the night.

When Bella opens her eyes and lifts her head from Jacob's chest only to find him gazing somberly at her, all she does is stare right back at him. She realizes that he has been memorizing every single detail of her, and she does the same. She stares at his smooth, unblemished skin as he gazes at the outline of his teeth in her shoulder, and they both wish he could carry her mark on him as well.

They don't speak of the impending fight. There is no point. After breakfast, Jacob retreats to his room to check for any last minute messages from Alice and Jasper, finding none. Then he lies on his bed and takes a spirit walk. He doesn't say why, but they both know he is trying to see if there is any way to prevent a real battle. Bella sits with him, holding his hand and unsuccessfully trying to quell the panic rising in her chest. He is gone for an hour, and when he opens his eyes, he somehow looks older than he did just minutes before. He says only, "So many powers. And all so useless." In response, she simply wraps herself around him and squeezes as tightly as she can.

At midday, Jacob's never-ending appetite pulls him back to the kitchen, and he mechanically eats whatever Charlie sets in front of him. One by one, his pack arrives, slowly filling the small living room to its capacity. Seth brings Emmett's new dog, Jake, who is the only one in the room free of anxiety. It sniffs happily at each pack member and wags its tail happily.

When everyone is there, he leads them into the backyard and gives them each instructions. Paul, Embry, and Seth stand off to one side. Quil keeps a reassuring hand on Jasmine's shoulder while she trembles in place, eyes wide and locked on Jacob. Collin and Brady listen closely as he tells them to do everything in their power to protect their home. Kim stays within a foot of Jared for the duration, and Emily hangs onto Sam's arm with both hands.

And when Jacob has no more excuses to stay, he pulls Bella in for a crushing hug, and for once, her grip around his waist is as tight as his on her. But when he kisses the top of her head, she knows she needs to let him go.

When he steps back and starts jogging toward the trees, half his pack trotting after him, she says the only thing she could think of. "You'd better be back tomorrow. You, me, picnic, bikini, beach, right?"

He turns back, and the last thing she sees is his broad grin. "It's a date."

X-x-x-x-X

The pack arrives at the Olympic National Forest well before nightfall, running in formation with the Alpha at the front. Jacob's eagle dives under the forest canopy, leading them forward. Seth, running at the rightmost flank, spots movement out of the corner of his eye, but does not slow. It is his taxilit. His mountain lion joins their ranks. In front of them, a hulking figure is barely visible amongst the trees. As they approach, Sam quickly recognizes the black bear, and a few minutes later, Embry's brown bear approaches them from the north.

The cat growls moments later, but they realize quickly that there is no threat nearby. Instead, Seth breaks away and follows the animal south. His brothers watch through the pack mind as it leads him upward and away from level ground. The terrain under his paws becomes increasingly uneven as he climbs higher. Eventually, the agile animal shows him to the pinnacle of a small set of ridges that wind their way through the forest. He sees a wedge that looks like it was cut out of the rock wall and settles himself in. The area is a perfect spot for defense. There is only one way to reach him, the climb that he just made. As Seth makes himself comfortable to wait, the lion paces in front of him, making itself his sentinel and guard.

The pack moves forward without him. They want to put enough distance between themselves and Seth so that when he must leave his body unattended and join them in spirit form, his vulnerable body will not be molested.

Embry moves to the front to trot beside Jacob. Having so recently experienced his spirit quest in this very forest, he knows it quite well, and he leads them to an area they have deemed appropriate for battle. It is bordered on the north by a steep, high cliff wall, and some years before had suffered a fire which had burned away any large trees. Smaller saplings and bushes have started to grow, but for the range of about half a mile, there are no sturdy trunks where a vampire can flee from a wolf, nor drop from above. The cliff face is not impossible to scale, at least, not for a vampire, but is still wide and broad enough, and inaccessible enough, that no enemy could drop on them from above without giving them plenty of warning.

Jacob places his brothers and the two bears in a widely spaced line running north to south beyond the western edge of the clearing. Soft conversations pepper the pack mind. They can still hear Brady and Jasmine to the west, both running a wide patrol around the borders of their reservation, and with nothing to do but wait, they watch the scenery change through their pack siblings' eyes. Jacob issues a few last minute instructions, being careful not to make them Alpha orders. In particular, he has not specifically Alpha ordered Collin, Brady or Jasmine to stay within the boundaries of their land, worried that such specific and arbitrary rules might hamper their ability to adapt to changing situations, particularly since he will not be within the pack mind during the battle to issue new orders as circumstances change.

As the sky begins to dim, he retraces his own steps westward, careful not to create a new scent trail for a vampire to follow. But he does not want to be too far from the battle should he need to rejoin the fight as a wolf, so he soon turns north and backs himself into a bluff carved out of the mountain. His eagle sweeps up, spinning in high circles above him.

_And Jacob flies. He speeds east past Olympic National Forest, over Puget Sound, and hovers over the dense collection of lives that is Seattle. He quickly finds the distinctive, multicolored flare of Rosalie's soul, and with her, the dark, solid heart of her husband. They are already running, sprinting south and away from the city. And on their heels, monsters with bright red eyes. _

_The fastest is Demetri. The tracker is tall and slim with a narrow face and pointed features. He is focused on his prey, but Jacob sees his eyes flicking back and forth, right and left, taking in his surroundings as he moves. There is no malice in his expression. Only concentration. Jacob is relieved to see that although he has dipped quite low in the sky, Demetri has not noticed him at all. Just as Edward could never see him in his spirit form, nor can these vampires._

_The one just behind him looks positively gleeful. His softer, almost effeminate features are twisted with a hungry smile. He stares unblinkingly at his prey as he runs, and Jacob recognizes the light shining from his eyes as a mark of insanity. This, then, is Caius. So bent on taking revenge against a beast he has, in fact, never encountered before, that he is risking his empire for this chance to kill. _

_Third in the long, winding line is Tanya. Her tapered, feline eyes are nearly black with hunger, and they are even more intense than Caius's. She sees nothing except Rosalie running before her, and her entire body is fueled by fury. She doesn't even seem to notice Emmett, who peeks behind himself from time to time with what can only be described as a taunting grin at his pursuers. Tanya's long, blonde curls become tangled and unrecognizable as they catch stray leaves and twigs as she darts in and out of the trees. Her once-fashionable clothes are torn and filthy, and she could hardly pass as human in this state._

_The female vampire behind Tanya, on the other hand, looks perfectly coiffed, as if her run through the woods is part of a modeling photoshoot. Her long, brown hair flies out behind her, her slim black clothes move seamlessly with her, and she runs as if there is nothing better in the world than what she is doing at this moment. This must be Gianna. Jacob thinks to himself that she might be happy running now, but he will be happy to wipe the smile off her face. _

_Bringing up the rear is a boy with a soft, round face and cherubic lips. So this must be Alec. Just as Rosalie described, his appearance is deceptively innocent. He looks like no threat at all. But the simple fact that he is keeping up with these other demons speaks highly of his skills. Jacob knows that although he might have the face of a child, he is, in reality, an immortal murderer. Perhaps the most powerful vampire in the world. Thankfully, he is not much of a runner, else Rosalie and Emmett would already be dead. They have managed to stay just ahead of the range of his powers. Jacob is tempted to try to open the earth beneath his feet, but he knows that he could not do this without destroying everything for miles around, not to mention, eventually Alec would just climb out of the ground. Unless Jacob could force him to the molten core of the earth, he would not die once buried._

_Jacob looks around carefully, trying to spot the last of their enemies. He realizes quickly that there is no point in looking with his eyes. He has to look with his heart. And then he sees. He focuses on the voids at the center of each creature, the black holes that once were souls. And he finds the last. Afton brings up the rear, no doubt protecting Alec's back. Now that he knows where to look, Jacob sees the shimmering edges of something not right. No matter how hard he looks, he is unable to see distinct features, but he is sure of it. There is someone there, just on Alec's heels. Afton._

Quickly, Jacob returns to his body, phases into his wolf, and shows his pack what he sees. He shows his brothers his enemy.

And then they wait.

_Jacob and Seth hover high above the forest. From time to time, one of the wolves looks up and acknowledges one of them with a nod. Time could not possibly move more slowly. Jacob watches his brothers communicating silently, wishing that his spirit form could join the pack mind. Instead, he and Seth gather clouds. They pull molecules of water from the streams rushing below, from the heavy air, from the currents that blow in from the ocean. They craft great storm clouds, then they hang them in the sky. _

_When they have enough, they lower themselves close to the ground. Each of them breathes in, sucking in giant lungfuls of air. And then they blow. They race up and down the eastern border of the forest, whipping the breeze into a frenzy. They reverse the natural currents and send the wind to the west. This way their brothers will smell the vampires coming long before the vampires smell them._

_Jacob's eagle soars even east of him, its small eyes piercing through the night, watching. When it lets out a cry, every member of the pack gathers its energy in its hind legs, ready to spring._

And then their enemies have arrived. Rosalie reaches the clearing first. Even her acute vision does not allow her to spot the wolves hidden in the trees, but she knows they are there. She smirks, knowing that the Volturi behind her cannot see her face. A second later they see a mad, gleeful grin on Emmett's face. Emmett and Rosalie run directly through their line, then turn to face their pursuers.

Minutes later, Demetri appears at the eastern edge of the clearing. Despite sprinting almost faster than the eye can see, he comes to a dead stop and holds up his hand. "Wait!" he whispers. "Something's wrong! What is that sound?"

Caius appears behind him, scanning the dark woods but finding nothing. "They're here," he breathes. "That repulsive stench gives them away."

Tanya stalks into the clearing several steps ahead of Demetri and Caius. She looks absolutely wild. "Rosalie, get out here, and bring your mutts with you!"

Rosalie turns to look at Emmett, who acknowledges her with a nod. She moves into the open clearing. "Go home, Tanya. Go home to your family. Go home to Kate."

"How dare you speak of my family!" she shrieks. "I have no family, thanks to you!"

"Irina did that to herself," Rosalie answers calmly. "I had nothing to do with that, and you know it. You both should have stayed in Alaska. There was no need to leave the comfort of your home, your men, your company, to come here."

"You traitor!" She paces forward. "Tell me where they are. Tell me. Where are the curs that killed my sister?"

"Go home," Rosalie repeats. "Nothing here threatens you. We lived here for years, peacefully, following the same lifestyle as you." She looks at Caius. "Go back to your throne while you still have one. Preserve your empire and leave us be. We're no threat to anyone. We were just sitting there, waiting for your goons to come knocking on our door, because we know that there's nothing we have to give you. You can't torture it out of us because we don't know anything."

Tanya finally loses what little control she has over her temper. "Liar!" She flings herself at Rosalie, and they meet with a reverberating crash. Tanya's momentum topples Rosalie over, but Rose rolls onto her back and kicks Tanya behind her with both legs shoved against her gut. Tanya tumbles back, but not before tearing a chunk out of Rosalie's arm.

But before Tanya can come to a stop, Emmett springs out from the trees, landing on top of her, pinning her down with his knees. Her arms are free, so she frantically blocks his attempts to grasp her head and rip it off. She scratches wildly at him, her nails leaving deep gashes in his arms. But before the wolves can reach the dueling pair, a fine, black mist envelops Rosalie, Emmett, and Tanya. Emmett falls backward off Tanya with surprise. The pack watches in horrified fascination as Alec steps into view. The mist extends from his fingertips and across the clearing. It blocks their way to the vampires. They know that if they try to jump through it, they will get caught in its paralyzing hold.

Caius glances at Alec with a bored frown. "I suppose that was necessary, but I was really hoping for a more entertaining battle."

Demetri silences him with a hand on his shoulder. "Don't speak so quickly. I still hear it, don't you?"

Caius narrows his eyes. "Heartbeats." He signals with his left hand, and Gianna steps forward. "Gather them to us. Carefully," he murmurs. A human would never hear him, but the wolves can.

_Jacob nods to Seth, hovering over the scene. Seth grins at his Alpha, reaches into a cloud, and flings a lightning bolt down. It hits Alec squarely in the chest._

The boy vampire freezes in a rictus of pain, and the mist disappears as suddenly as it came. Emmett and Rosalie shake their heads clear, while Tanya races back to the eastern side of the clearing. And before the vampires know what is going on, five enormous wolves spring into the clearing.

Paul reaches Gianna first, crashing into her with an enraged snarl. She blocks their way to Alec. Her newborn strength is formidable, but her surprise and inexperience make her vulnerable. She kicks him away, but not before he reaches out a giant claw to shred her abdomen in great ribbons. She falls backward with an agonized scream. Jared leaps in and grabs her right hand in his jaws. She punches furiously at his muzzle with her left fist, cracking the bone beneath his eye. But he does not let go until he rips her hand entirely off. Paul is about to go in for the kill, but he hears Jacob yell, _Paul, behind you! _just as he feels a hand wrap around his right hind leg. Through the eyes of his brothers, there is nothing visible behind him, but he braces himself on his front legs and kicks blindly behind him, knocking Afton away.

_"Paul, Jared, head's up!" yells Seth from somewhere above them. _

Jared and Paul retreat quickly, and a less than a second later, another bolt of lightning lights up the clearing, setting the closest sapling on fire. Emmett and Rose scramble away.

The wolves look up in time to see Jacob's spirit sweeping down over the small tree, inhaling the fire into his lungs and stoking them into a huge fireball. He swings down over Gianna and blasts the flames across her wounds. She collapses with agonized screams as her venom catches fire.

Alec's mouth drops open where he rests in the dirt on his hands and knees, recovering from the pain of his electrocution. Demetri freezes in the midst of his face off with Quil and Sam. Caius falls backward in horror, away from Gianna's writhing body. Tanya realizes instantly why Emmett and Rose fled, not wanting to get caught in the blaze, and yells, "It's the shaman!" before she runs west after them. Demetri snaps back to attention and takes off after her.

_"Quil, go!" yells Jacob, and as he speaks, the flame inside him flickers out._

And Quil sprints toward Demetri and Tanya.

_Hovering above the clearing, Jacob sees the black hole of Afton's soul creeping back into the trees, terrified of the mysterious flames. Jacob sweeps down to the still-flaming sapling, gathering another spark, and looses it across the retreating back of the cowardly, invisible vampire. _

Afton screams in agony, but having no open wounds, does not ignite. But Embry sees the fire and leaps after it. Jacob, knowing that Embry cannot see his foe, stays with him.

Caius and Alec are left behind. They square off against Jared, Paul, and Sam, who form an attack stance before them as quickly as possible. In unison, the three wolves leap into the air, snarling, teeth bared. But Alec throws his hands up just in time, and just inches away, they collapse to the ground, surrounded by suffocating black haze through which nothing can penetrate.

Caius bends over them, curiosity bright in his eyes. "Thank you," he glances at Alec. "Do you think you can hold them this way for a while?"

Alec nods. "Of course. But don't forget about the fire, and the ones who ran off. They could be back any moment."

"Ah," Caius nods ruefully. "I suppose you are right. A shame. I would love to gut one of these things and see what's inside. It has been a long time since I have seen a Child of the Moon." He glances into the night sky, looking directly through Seth's invisible spirit. "Odd, though. There is no full moon tonight. I wonder what they really are."

Eyes darting fearfully about, Alec asks, "Can we figure it out later?"

Caius returns his attention to Sam, lying at his feet. "Yes, I suppose there is time for debate once the battle is won. But I can still do a quick experiment. Three ways to kill three wolves. I'll break this one's neck." But before he gets both hands around Sam, a roar sounds from the woods to the west, and the ancient black bear crashes through the brush in a gallop.

Caius jumps forward to meet it. As it rears up on its hind legs to slash at his head with its paws, he blocks the blows with his forearms. The bear grabs at his shoulders, shoving him down, but when the bear leans down to bite the back of his head, he rears up suddenly, headbutting the animal. It falls backward in pain. "What is this, a zoo?" he sputters incredulously. Then he flings the bear back and into the rock wall. It slumps against the ground, unable to move.

"Come take care of these before the fire comes back!" Alec shouts.

"Fine," Caius agrees irritably.

But before he can take another step, another lightning bolt zips down from the sky, this time striking Caius instead of Alec. He collapses in pain.

Meanwhile, to the west, Quil has caught up with Tanya and Demetri. Rosalie is battling Tanya while Emmett struggles against Demetri. They are evenly matched. Rose and Tanya have approximately the same build and speed. Tanya's irrational fury might put her at an advantage were it not for Rosalie's grim determination. For each punch that Tanya lands to Rosalie's marble jaw, Rosalie has an answering blow to Tanya's gut or flank. And the chunk that Tanya tore from Rosalie's arm was answered not only with Emmett's scratches, but slashes across her torso courtesy of her foe.

Emmett is larger and stronger than Demetri, but the Volturi guard is a more experienced fighter. And he has more speed. For every strike that Emmett lands about his head and neck, Demetri manages two. But Emmett doesn't appear to even feel them. Finally, Demetri backs up, and they circle one another, each trying to get behind the other and out of the range of defensive blows.

Quil takes advantage of the space between them. Emmett catches sight of him and taunts Demetri to keep his attention. "How do you like being a slave to your masters? What do they have on you? Chelsea isn't holding you there anymore, you have no mate with them. Why the hell are you playing the dutiful servant? Do you just enjoy being their bitch?"

While Demetri is too smart to get into a petty argument in the middle of the fight, Emmett's words distract him enough that he doesn't hear Quil coming upon him until the last second. By the time he hears movement behind him and turns to face it, Quil is already midair. He barely has time to throw up his arms in defense. His quick reflexes save him from being instantly beheaded, but Quil's teeth tear deep gashes in both forearms, and he lands on his back several yards behind where he stood. He shoves Quil off with all four limbs, but when Quil flies backward and off him, takes his right arm with him.

"Give it here!" Emmett yells gleefully. Quil tosses Emmett the arm as Demetri springs to his feet and jumps fifteen feet off the ground, catching a branch with his remaining arm and hauling himself into a sturdy pine. "Help Rose," Emmett yells as he leaps after Demetri, who struggles to climb with only one arm. The two jump higher and higher, Emmett yelling, "Hey, want this back? Wait, I'm talking to you. Slow down. I think I've got something that belongs to you!"

Quil turns back to Rosalie. When Tanya looks away for just one second to see what is happening to Demetri, Rose disappears into the tree above her. Tanya doesn't have a chance to figure out where she went as Quil tackles her into the trunk, shaking it so hard that Rosalie nearly loses her grip. Tanya sweeps out her arm quickly enough to crack Quil's forearm with a sharp fracture, and he rears back, limping. But before Tanya can leap back at Quil, Rosalie drops down and lands on her back. In one swift move, she immobilizes Tanya's arms with her legs wrapped firmly around her, then grabs her head and twists it off at the neck, tossing it to the side. Quil phases back to human and retrieves his lighter from the clothes tied around his ankle, while Rosalie scales the tree after Emmett and Demetri. Quil tosses his lighter onto Tanya's body, and within seconds, her remains are blazing.

Demetri has gone as high as he can. The thin branches at the top of the pine will not sustain his weight. As Demetri prepares to leap into the nearest tree, Emmett swipes at his ankles with Demetri's dismembered limb, preventing him from planting his feet steadily enough to make the jump.

Rosalie appears on the next branch. "Just finish it, Em. Stop toying with him."

"But this is so much fun!" he protests.

"Have fun killing the others! There are three more left!" she chides.

"Shit, you're right."

Demetri takes advantage of them distracting each other and flings himself to the next tree, so Rosalie mutters, "Damn it," and launches herself after him.

Demetri makes it to a thick branch, catching it deftly with his only hand and pulling himself up. But when Rosalie lands on his back, catching him around the waist, he has no way to fend her off. She scrambles up his body until she has her legs secured around his waist, and then she punches his arm so hard that a hairline crack appears. They tumble to the ground, where Quil awaits. Rosalie lands beneath Demetri, but does not let him go. Quil's jaw closes around Demetri's left leg, clamping shut, while Rosalie restrains his arm. Demetri tries to kick Quil off him with his other foot, dislocating his shoulder, but Quil refuses to let go, and Demetri loses his leg at the knee and screams.

Emmett jumps down from his perch, tossing Demetri's other arm onto the pyre that is all that remains of Tanya. Demetri's screams turn into terrible shrieks. But the awful sound is cut short when Emmett rips off his head. In moments, the rest of the body is in flames.

Quil starts to growl, and his companions look around in confusion. It takes them a second to realize that he is looking through the eyes of his brothers. By the time they are certain there are no more pieces left to burn, Quil is already gone, limping along on his dislocated shoulder and broken forearm toward his pack.

He sprints in a loop to the east. Embry is struggling against his invisible foe. Indeed, the only reason Embry still lives is due to Jacob's assistance. Although Jacob cannot see Afton's body, he can see the black hole that signifies his dead soul. He torments the vampire by breathing fire over him. But still he does not burn. Embry follows by chasing after the moving flame. His brown bear gallops at his side.

Unfortunately, as soon as Jacob stops breathing fire long enough to allow Embry to get close, Afton darts away. Embry snaps at the spot the vampire vacated only a second before. The pattern repeats itself twice more until Embry sees a small tree becoming uprooted before him, and before he can get close enough to leap forward and bite at the space where he knows Afton must be standing, the tree comes flying at him. He turns just in time to protect his head by taking the blow into his flank. Pain shoots through him as two left ribs snap. He ignores the pain as he tosses the tree aside, but when he looks up, he sees his taxilit falling backward. The animal becomes trapped between two large trunks. By the time he frees the animal, he has no idea where the vampire has gone. He looks up to the ball of fire hanging in the air that is Jacob.

He hears a twig snap just inches away, as he hears Jacob yell, _On your right! _and he jumps forward just in time. He feels the hands of the vampire around his tail, and loses only fur instead of getting his pelvis crushed. He spins around and swipes his paw blindly, knocking his enemy back. He sees leaves and detritus scatter where Afton lands, and he leaps forward, noticing that when Jacob spoke, it extinguished the fire he had held in his chest. But when he lands, Afton has already moved.

_Up! He's gone into the trees! _Jacob's disembodied voice yells. And then a wind rises, shaking the nearest oak. He hears a woosh and a thump, and Jacob's voice, _Now here! _And the tree to his right shakes. _He's on the run. Follow me! _

Embry gallops after Jacob and the sounds of Afton jumping from tree to tree. The bear trails behind him, one of its paws crushed from where it was wedged between the trees. _Hang on. I'm going to try to give him some of his own medicine, _Jacob yells. And the next tree shakes so violently in a concentrated whirlwind that Embry hears a thump in front of him, where a small depression forms in the soft loam on the ground. Afton has fallen to the ground.

Embry plows into his invisible foe. He feels pain in his chest as he is punched in the sternum, and he snaps his jaws blindly in front of him, but bites only air. He feels himself being shoved up and backward, and he swipes his paws wildly in front of him. He lands a lucky blow across what he thinks is the vampire's face, and the creature screams in pain. When Jacob yells, _He's right on top of you! _Embry is rescued by his taxilit plowing into the invisible vampire and knocking it off him. He rolls to the side moments before he hears a thud landing to his left. He retreats before Afton can get his arms around him, and he sees in his mind that Quil is sprinting toward him.

He hears Afton's footsteps receding to the east, and he turns to follow. His taxilit can no longer follow, its injuries too severe. The animal tells him to go, and so he does. He sees Jacob's spirit form in front of him and knows he is on the correct trail. _I'm going to help you find him,_ he hears.

And then Jacob stops midair, twists, and dives to the ground. He grabs fistfuls of loose earth and begins to fling them, rapid-fire, in front of him.

The dirt lands on the invisible vampire. Afton instantly figures out what is going on, but he has no way to stop it. He can neither see Jacob's spirit in front of him, and even if he could, he would have no way to prevent Jacob from exposing him.

Embry races toward the outline of dirt. Afton frantically swipes it off him, but even that leaves a falling trail of dust, and Jacob continues covering him. Afton is fast as he darts away through the trees, but Embry is faster. It takes him a minute to catch up, but he pounces on the first thing he can see, a lump that might represent Afton's shoulder. The shoulder moves out of the way before he can clamp his jaws around it completely, but he manages to tear a chunk out. Startled by the pain, he materializes momentarily. Embry sees a slight, tall, middle aged appearing vampire with thin, pointed features and bright red eyes. And as suddenly as he appears, he is gone.

But it no longer matters. Afton is unable to wipe the dirt away as quickly as Jacob can fling it at him. Embry springs forward, jaws open, and tackles his invisible adversary to the ground. They tumble over and over, Afton smashing Embry's head into the nearest tree trunk. It dazes him for a second, but a slashing pain across his chest brings him to full awareness, and he lashes out with his large head and butts the vampire off him. Dirt sways in front of his face, and he spins to meet it. He locks his jaws on what he thinks is a leg and pulls down.

And then Quil leaps out of the undergrowth, slamming into Afton's upper body and further breaking his already-injured forearm. Embry tears Afton's leg from his torso, and the injured, screaming vampire can no longer maintain his invisibility. Quil keeps him pinned to the ground with his bulk, absorbing Afton's thrashing punches. Afton manages to put a second fracture just inches away from the first, causing Quil to howl in pain. But he refuses to let go until Embry tears off Afton's head. The marble body collapses in a slump.

Quil limps a few feet away as Embry begins to dismember the remains. But after separating the limbs from the torso, Embry phases back to human and reaches for the clothes tied to his ankle. "Shit. They're gone."

Quil tilts his head at him quizzically.

"My lighter was in there. I need yours," Embry reaches out his hand, but Quil just shakes his head. He used his only lighter to light Tanya and Demetri on fire. "Damn it." Embry compromises by climbing the nearest tree and wedging Afton's head amongst its branches while Quil emits a high pitched whine. He is worried for his brothers, whose eyes are frighteningly void of any sight. They have recovered their vision for a few seconds at a time, several times, revealing only brief and disorienting images. But it is enough to know that they are still alive. He turns, limping, back toward the clearing without waiting for Embry. Jacob is already well ahead of him in spirit form. Behind him, Embry scatters the limbs and torso far apart from one another so they cannot easily reform, resolving to come back as soon as possible to dispose of the remains properly.

Then he turns and sprints back, quickly catching up to the limping Quil and then surpassing him. Afton led them quite far in his retreat, and every moment that Embry cannot see through his brothers' eyes is another moment he worries he will lose them altogether. But none of them are dead. Of that he is certain. He can feel them, disoriented and blind, in the pack mind.

_Unlike Quil's limp or Embry's sprint, Jacob's travel requires basically no time at all. He arrives back at the clearing before Embry is done separating the pieces of Afton's body. Ahead of him, Seth flings bolt after bolt of lightning at Caius and Alec, whose pale bodies are now tracked with intricate, branching black scorch marks. It is the only thing holding the vampires at bay, and Jacob is dismayed to see that not only are Sam, Paul, and Jared paralyzed by Alec's power, but on the other side, Emmett and Rosalie have been immobilized as well. Alec has his hands outstretched to either side, sending his mist in opposite directions to envelop both groups. _

_The vampires have managed to skillfully dodge several of Seth's blasts, but are unable to stay still long enough to stop and kill any of the wolves. And each time Alec sustains a shock, he loses focus for a few seconds. The wolves have each tried to jump at Alec each time they regain awareness, but have been repelled either by Caius defensive blows or by Alec's resurgent mist. The battle is at a standoff. _

_"I need help!" Seth screams. "I can't kill them this way. Get them with fire!"_

_"Are either of them wounded? Otherwise it won't kill them."_

_"Shit. No. Not a scratch," Seth yells as he throws another lightning bolt at Caius as he tries to make his way toward Jared._

_"Then we have to stall until somebody else can take a swipe at them. Light something on fire and I'll help you!"_

_Seth immediately obliges, sending a charge to the bush nearest Alec. Jacob immediately swoops down and blasts a roaring flame at Alec, who immediately loses control of his power. Seth immediately starts flinging lightning at Caius, who collapses in pain._

The wolves and Cullens soon regain their senses, just as Embry arrives. _Above them, Seth yells, "Take out Alec! He's more dangerous than this one. I'll keep Caius down while you get Alec." He tosses another bolt at the leader before he can get up, and the monster screams obscenities into the vicious sky. "Jake'll pull back the flame for just a second. If you can take just a little chunk out of Alec, he'll set him on fire."_

_Jacob immediately pulls back his flame, and Embry immediately launches himself at Alec, aiming for his head. But Alec twists just in time, taking the bite in his shoulder instead of his skull. Embry spits out the acrid chunk and then leaps out of the way. The entire company backs up to give Jacob a large berth for his inferno, and Seth strikes Caius once more to keep him still. _

But suddenly, Jacob is gone from the sky, and the fireball with him. The wolves look about in confusion.

A mile away, Jacob feels himself being shaken. He opens his eyes to see Jasmine's wide, terrified green eyes hovering over him. He sits up in alarm. "What's going on?" he demands.

"Are you okay?" she asks, clearly terrified. "You wouldn't wake up. I thought you were hurt!"

"What?!" he yells. "What the fuck are you doing here? I told you to guard the Rez!" He immediately regrets not having made it an Alpha order. He was worried that he might issue an order that could inadvertently restrict either Collin, Jasmine, or Brady in a dangerous way, but this is much, much worse.

Her voice wavers, thick with anxiety. "I had to help you. I had to come. I couldn't just sit there and let you fight without me. What if something happened to you and I could have prevented it? I phased in when I got here, but it was so confusing, and I couldn't find you. But I smelled your trail and ran after you."

He narrows his eyes in suspicion. He is outside the pack mind when he spirit walks, but his beta has not been. "Sam let you do that? He didn't order you back?"

She shakes her head. "No one knew I phased in, I think. It's such a mess. And I..."

"What?" he demands.

"I was afraid that he might order me home if he knew I was here, so I stayed in human form as much as possible. And when I found you, you were just lying there, heart beating a mile a minute, not moving or waking up or anything. I got scared!"

He shakes his head at her incredulously. Her imprint has clouded her judgement past all reason. "I was spirit walking!" he hisses. "I have to get back!"

"Let me help!" she pleads. "I'm so sorry!"

Overhead, the eagle screams.

"Just phase in and stay here. Keep guard or something."

But it takes much longer than he would prefer to calm her enough that he is able to leave.

_By the time he returns, no one is left in the clearing. Seth calls out to him. "Over here!" Half a mile to the east, he sees the all the wolves, even Embry and Quil, lined up outside the mouth of a cave, lost in a cloud of black mist. "What happened to you?"_

_"Jasmine woke me up. Don't even ask. Update me."_

_"Alec is in there. He and Caius ran off when we got distracted by your disappearance. Rose and Emmett went after Caius. Alec found this cave to hide in. I can't get any lightning in there, and he trapped the guys here just outside the entrance. He popped his head out once, probably to try to kill them, so I shocked him. He hasn't tried again since."_

_"Shit. Okay, let's flush him out. Same technique we used before. Can you light something on fire?"_

"_Yeah." Seth immediately flings a bolt at a dead, dry tree several yards behind the hapless wolves. It goes up like tinder. _

_As Jacob lowers himself over it, absorbing the fire, he spots a void of blackness moving toward them. "Shit! I thought that fucker was dead!" Immediately, he lights it on fire. _

_Afton's disfigured, flaming body is instantly visible. Dripping venom from dozens of wounds where he had recently been dismembered and then somehow reattached, he flares and screams terribly. He flings himself down into a mud puddle at the base of the cliff, dousing the flames, but the damage has been done. His once-flawless visage is now horribly and permanently scarred. Seth strikes him down with a bolt before Jacob releases a continuous stream of fire. _

_This time there is no escape. No matter how he writhes in the mud, he cannot extinguish the inferno, as its source is boundless. Jacob refuses to stop until the awful thing is truly gone. _

_Behind him, he hears an exclamation from Seth and he turns midair. Alec has sprinted out of his hiding place and is speeding to the west as quickly as he can, holding his mist in place as long as possible, but he is soon out of range, dodging Seth's lightning as he goes. The wolves have just awoken, and they race after him. _

_"Spread out," _Sam insists._ "It's too easy for him to take us all out when we're standing next to each other."_

Paul, Jared, and Embry split off, while Sam sticks to the rock face. Quil limps behind him. Sam is gaining ground on Alec, but the small vampire is very fast and very desperate. His darts about, flinging himself amidst the trees whenever possible to stay out of sight, but Seth stays with him. He manages to avoid electrocution by taking a weaving, random path.

_But Seth predicts his next move when he sees Alec eyeing a tall, weathered pine growing close to the cliff face. He is going to try to climb the tree in order to get to higher ground and away from the wolves. Seth deliberately sends a shock just a few feet to Alec's left, deliberately missing and herding him toward the tree. And just as Alec leaps onto the lowest branches, he sends a blast into the center of the trunk. It splits down the middle, sending Alec crashing to the ground._

Sam is on him in seconds, sinking his ferocious jaws into Alec's leg and tearing it loose and spitting it to the side. Alec shrieks in pain, the sound bouncing off the rock face. But before Sam can take off his head, Alec flings up his hands and sends his mist swirling around Sam, who falls back, stunned. Alec trips forward, reattaches his limb, then descends on the immobilized Sam. He flips Sam onto his side and presses his knee into Sam's neck. He keeps his hands trained down, his mist enveloping the black wolf in a suffocating blanket, as he cuts off Sam's airway with his knee.

_Above them, Seth doesn't know what to do. Sam is far too close to Alec. If he sends a bolt down now, Sam will get caught in the blast, and unlike the already-dead vampire, his heart is likely to stop. Seth begins to scream for his brothers, who burst out of the underbrush. _

But before they can rip his head off, he is up and off again. Jared, Embry and Paul race after him.

_Seth hovers over Sam, yelling at him to wake up. He is helpless. Sam's neck has been smashed. Blood pours from his open mouth. He needs assistance, but Seth can provide none in this form. But as soon as Quil arrives, quickly phasing back to human and dropping to his knees in front of Sam, Seth looks around. He realizes in alarm that Jacob's spirit is nowhere to be seen. A howl sounds, only to be abruptly cut off, and he flings his spirit up the mountain, where his brothers disappeared._

_He races up the path, terrified, but when he arrives, his own heart nearly stops. _

Halfway down the mountain path, Caius drags Jasmine's unconscious wolf body along in his left hand. In his right, he yanks Jacob's unmoving human form across the rocks. Jacob blinks and twists helplessly, unable to see, hear, or even feel his captor in order to resist him. Alec stands to his right, maintaining his black smoke in tight formation around the two shifters with his left hand. His other hand is extended to the right, where his mist surrounds Rosalie, frozen to his right.

Behind him, at the pinnacle of the ridge, Emmett crouches in an attack stance. Positioned below him and several yards apart are the remaining wolves who form a wide circle, growling. Jared and Paul are below, Embry and, to Seth's surprise, Leah's small grey wolf, her fur matted with blood. Caius's enraged eyes flit between the wolves in front of him and the sky. He is trapped. Alec cannot surround all of their enemies with his mist, separated as they are. And Caius no longer believes he can defeat these foes in battle.

_Seth does the only thing he can think to do. If he strikes Caius or Alec, he will kill Jacob and Jasmine as well. So he sends a warning shot across the sky._

Caius stiffens in surprise. Once he had found Jacob's unconscious body being guarded by Jasmine, whom he quickly overpowered and rendered unconscious with a well placed blow to the head, he thought he must have found the shaman controlling the lightning and the animals. Now he doesn't know what to think. "Call off the lightning!" Caius yells at the sky. "Call off the dogs!"

"Never!" Emmett yells. "You can't win! You're outnumbered. There's no way to escape. It's over, Caius."

Caius turns to him, raking Jasmine and Jacob across the rough terrain. Alec carefully maintains his spell. "Then you won't mind if I snap their necks while I'm waiting for you to come kill me?"

"Don't do it!" Emmett holds his hands out. "You won't gain anything by killing them. There's no way you can both get away."

_Seth sends a banging clap of thunder above their heads, and in unison, each of the wolves step forward._

"Stop!" Caius screams, his voice harsh and commanding. He flings Jacob up in the air with a flick of his arm and catches him by the back of his neck. "Stop and let us leave, or I break his neck now!"

The wolves growl at him with one voice, and in response he lowers Jacob's body just far enough to pin his leg down underneath his foot. In a motion so quick that they almost don't see it, he yanks the body up and back, snapping the tibia and fibula cleanly in two. Alec drops his mist for just long enough for Jacob to begin screaming and thrashing, but before he can free himself, Alec raises it above his head again.

"Now," Caius hisses, "Let's try that one more time. We're leaving, and we're taking our hostages with us. If we so much as hear you breathing behind us, if one drop of rain so much as hits my head, they die. Understood?"

They have no choice. They step back. Caius passes Jacob over to Alec. "What about her?" Alec whispers to him, glancing at Rosalie, crouching in his cloud.

"Leave her," Caius answers reluctantly. "We can't transport all three of them."

So they back away, past Rose and up the rocks. Alec keeps a wall of mist between himself and the pack, and when it finally dissipates, they are gone.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my lovely beta, Babs81410. Look for the next update on Friday.


	36. Chapter 35

Warning: Graphic violence, not for the faint of heart.

X-x-x-x-X

June 6

X-x-x-x-X

_Seth follows Caius and Alec as they make their way out of the forest, blowing the storm clouds out of their way. The eagle flies at his side. When they climb into a black SUV which had been hidden on an old, abandoned logging road, loading Jasmine's unconscious wolf form into the back, he seriously considers tossing another lightning bolt at the car to disable it. But he has no way to kill the vampires in this form, while they have every ability to kill Jacob and Jasmine, so he restrains himself. Instead he follows, wishing he had a way to tell his brothers where he is. But he knows that if he returns to his body, he will lose track of them, and then they will be gone entirely._

_Unfortunately, after about half an hour, he feels the invisible tether holding him to his body stretching to its limit. He struggles against it. The vampires have shown no signs of stopping, and he has no idea where they are going. And once he loses sight of the vehicle, he fears he will never find it again. He memorizes the license plate number and pushes himself as far as he is able. _

_Soon he can go no farther. Try as he might, his body calls him home. He finds himself yanked forcibly backward._

_But in front of him, the eagle gives him hope. It does not call out, not wanting to attract attention to itself. But as he soars back toward his body, to his corporeal form, the eagle speeds on. It glances back just once, twisting in a single loop to acknowledge him, before continuing on. _

He sits up in his body, shaking his head to clear it. He isn't where he thought he left his body, but instead is in the large clearing where the initial portion of the battle took place. He first spots Rosalie, who is wrapping a makeshift splint around Quil's arm. His other one already sits in a sling to accommodate his dislocated shoulder.

She nods at him. "Look, he's back."

"Good. What did you find out? Did you follow them?" He turns to his sister's voice and sees Sam stretched out on the ground several feet away, his head cradled in Leah's lap.

He is too confused by his sister's presence to answer her question. She is supposed to be in Seattle ensuring Rachel's safety. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Twisting about, he realizes the rest of the pack is gone. "Where is everyone else?"

"Who cares, I ran, and they're out looking for Jake and Jasmine. Did you find them?"

Seth nods breathlessly. "Kind of. They were loaded into a black SUV. They headed out of the park."

"They okay?"

"So far." He eyes Sam, who has now opened his eyes and turned toward Seth.

Rosalie catches them staring at each other. "He's going to be fine. Vocal cords got injured, so it's going to be at least a few hours before he can talk again. Alec crushed his airway and the circulation to the brain, but as soon as Alec let go, it started to heal. He'll be fine, thanks to Quil."

"CPR," explains Leah. "Get back to the point. Can you show the others where Jake is?"

"He's still moving southeast. They're driving fast. Really fast." Seth shakes his head. "I can't go that far. It's the only reason I came back already. But his eagle is with him. I think maybe once they stop, it'll come back and show us where he is."

"Thank god." Leah lets out a huge sigh. "Then we'll have some kind of a lead. Right now the guys are just chasing their tails. Can you phase and get them back here so we can regroup? I want us all to be ready when the eagle returns so we can go after them as soon as we know where we're going."

Seth turns to Rosalie. "Are they going to be okay for a hard run? I don't know how far we'll have to go."

"Quil here can't run right now," Rose answers.

Quil immediately contradicts her. "The hell I can't!"

"Fine. You can run on your human legs. But both of your arms will probably be useless until tomorrow. Even then, you shouldn't phase right away. The fractures will probably break all over again."

"So what? It didn't stop me just now, and it isn't going to."

"Can we argue about this later? Unless you can figure out how to get your wolf to sprint on just its hind legs, all you're going to do is slow them down." Rosalie scolds him. She turns back to Seth. "Anyway, the answer is yes. It'll hurt a bit, but yes. Except for these two."

Seth steps away to phase and call his brothers back, then returns to Leah, who is gently running her hand through Sam's hair. Sam's eyes are closed, but his breathing isn't even, and Seth knows he is awake. He asks his sister, "So what happened? What are you doing here?"

"Rachel couldn't stand waiting in Seattle. She wanted to be with the rest of the family, so she got someone to cover for her summer class, and I drove her back to the Rez. I sort of had half a mind to drop her off and then come help out, back you guys up, but when I we got there and I realized Jasmine had already bolted, I went after her. She had a serious head start on me. I told her to turn around and come home, but she wouldn't listen."

Rosalie fumes, "What the fuck was that stupid bitch thinking? Defying an Alpha order to protect her home? She ruined everything. If it weren't for her, Jake would be here and Alec and Caius would be dead."

"She was just trying to help!" Quil yells back.

"She did help! She helped them capture Jake!" Rosalie yells back.

Miserably, Quil tries to defend her. "It was an accident. She would never hurt him on purpose."

Softly, Leah snorts. "There's a lot of that going around, isn't there?"

Rosalie narrows her eyes. "But seriously. I want to know how she defied the order."

"It wasn't an Alpha order," Leah explains. "Jake gave us assignments, not Alpha orders. He didn't want anyone to be hampered by an Alpha order in case the situation changed and one of us needed to do something different than what we were told. In my case, it worked. If he had Alpha ordered me to stay in Seattle, I wouldn't have been here to help either."

"So tell us what happened when you got here?" Seth prompts.

"Ah. So I sprinted as fast as I could. I was watching it in the pack mind when she phased in. I guess once she found Jake, he told her to phase in and guard him, so she did. She just wasn't a match for Caius. She tried to get him away from Jake's body, but between not being that experienced, plus being so small, she just was struggling. He was still outside his body. Completely vulnerable. I told her I was coming, told her to hold him off for just another minute. But he got in a couple wicked blows to her head and knocked her out cold. Tossed her to the side. He had his hands on Jake when I got here. Was about to snap his neck. I got the drop on him and tackled him away. I tried to draw him away from Jake and Jasmine, but didn't get far. He's fierce, and he fights dirty, even for a leech."

Sam reaches up and traces his finger along Leah's arm with a small frown on his face. It, along with the rest of her skin, is covered in her own blood, but most of the claw marks that had slashed her skin open have closed. Leah tugs her arm back somewhat uncomfortably but doesn't move out from underneath Sam. "I'm okay, really." He insistently reaches for her hand and squeezes it, and she doesn't pull away. Instead she returns her attention to her brother. "I got a big hunk out of his side, and I thought I had him. Especially when Rose dropped from above us. Between the two of us, we'd have taken him down. But then the little one showed up. Held her at bay with his spell. Caius told me to stop and give him his, you know, the bite back." She points vaguely at her side. "Said Alec would decapitate Rose if I didn't back off. I think that's how he figured out how they could get out."

"Hostages," Seth nods.

"Right. Anyway, so he jammed the piece back into his side."

Rosalie fingers the spot in her arm where Tanya had torn a chunk out of her, now seamlessly integrated into her body again after she found it lying on the ground. "Me too," she murmurs.

Leah nods. "Convenient, I guess, huh? That's when the rest of you showed up, and well, you know the rest."

"Fuck," Quil mutters.

"What are we going to tell Billy? And Bella?" Seth asks. Leah just shakes her head, and they settle in to wait.

X-x-x-x-X

Neither Collin nor Brady has the heart to enter the Black house in the middle of the night to explain to the family what happened to Jacob and Jasmine. Brady stumbles to his own home, trembling and barely able to speak, and tells his mother the most basic version of the tale, terrified he will get in trouble for not preventing his cousin from running off. She just hugs her son tightly before calling Sue, who stops looking through her window to await the return of her children, instead curling up with Emmett's dog, who sympathetically nudges her hand with his muzzle. She understands that they will not return today. They are too busy searching for their packmates.

Instead, just before dawn, she heads to Billy's house, the dog trailing obediently behind her. Charlie throws open the door at her knock, his face visibly paling when he sees the expression on her face.

"Can I come in?" The dog darts in front of her, pushing its head into Charlie's hand to be petted.

Billy appears in the doorway of the kitchen, gripping the arms of his wheelchair tightly and staring at her with bloodshot eyes. Bella and Rachel stand in the hallway, each girl with a pillow clutched to her belly. Sue stares at the linens on the couch, Charlie's makeshift bed. She quietly closes the door behind her and turns to Billy, steeling herself. She has had to give bad news many times in her life, but never quite like this. She doesn't beat around the bush, knowing that any polite or delicate language will just make each of them imagine the very worst. "I don't know exactly what happened, but Jacob and Jasmine were taken. No one knows what has happened to them, but they were alive the last time they were seen."

Bella doesn't hear the rest of what Sue says after that. She sways in place, but Rachel grabs her arm, so she does not fall. She had been lying in Jacob's bed, half awake and half asleep, when she felt a momentary jolt of pain in her right leg. It was so surprising and excruciating that she cried out, drawing the rest of the family into her bedroom, but it was over as soon as it began. Terror overwhelmed her as Charlie and Billy questioned her. The abrupt end to the pain was more frightening than the pain itself. At least if she felt Jacob's pain, he was alive to feel it. This awful blankness was even worse, because she had no idea what it meant.

Rachel knelt down in front of her and demanded an explanation. She had none to give, so instead she lied and said she had a nightmare. She wasn't certain anyone believed her, but they left her alone after that.

She didn't fall asleep again. None of them did. She lay flat on her back and stared at Jacob's ceiling, fearful that she was about to feel searing pain again, but despairing that she might not. Her entire body hummed with anxiety. But she put her palm to her chest and felt her own heart beating. Surely if his were to stop, hers would as well?

She tries to tune back in to what Sue is saying. "The pack is looking for them. Sam was injured badly. After I leave, I'm going to go with Brady to check on him, probably bring him home. Rosalie has been taking care of him. The others are okay except for broken bones."

"Jake broke his leg," Bella says quietly and without thought.

"What?" Charlie spins on his heel to look at her, hands on his hips. "What did you say?"

"When I yelled and woke you up. It was because he broke his leg," she explains.

Billy frowns at her. "Have they broken anything else since then? Is he hurting right now?"

She shakes her head and is unable to meet his eyes. "Not that I can feel."

"What do you feel?" Rachel demands. She is angry at Bella for withholding this information, but more than that, she wants to know everything Bella knows.

Bella can no longer hold back her tears. She stares at a childhood picture of Jacob and his two sisters on the mantle, unable to take her eyes off his bright white grin. "He's alive. I know he's alive."

"How can you tell?" Rachel presses her.

"Because I would know if he wasn't."

X-x-x-x-X

Jacob wakes up on a cold, concrete floor. It almost feels good against his overheated skin. He hears the thin, pinched voice of Caius alternating with the reedy, high pitched voice of Alec bouncing off the walls. They seem to be moving around, now above him, behind him, in front of him. He concentrates on keeping his breathing even and slow so that they do not realize he is awake, and tries to gather as much information as possible. He feels the heavy weight of manacles around both wrists and ankles, but he doesn't yet move. Hopefully he can snap these off. He lies on his left side, waiting patiently. They are arguing over who they think he is and what Jasmine might be.

Caius is saying, "These are unlike any Children of the Moon I have ever encountered. They don't even look the same."

"What were the other ones like?"

"Vicious and rabid. Strong but stupid. When in their wolf form, they lost all vestiges of their humanity, at least in their minds. They knew nothing but the desire to kill, to fight. They took no care to cover their tracks, to avoid over-hunting an area or keep from exposing themselves. They were senseless, base creatures, but dangerous nonetheless. The only human thing about them that remained when they turned were some basic physical characteristics. They didn't look like normal wolves, nor like these overgrown things. You could tell they were once men. They stood on their hind legs, not on all fours. They were closer to the size of tall men, not horses. These, these are something else altogether."

"Did they travel together, like these?"

Caius denies it. "Not in their animal form. Two males were as likely to kill each other as they were to kill a vampire, an animal, or a human. They were indiscriminate predators. In their human form, they hardly knew what they had done while they were animals, but if they discovered what they were, they were horrified. If they found one another as men, they might make attempts to assist each other. Say, lock one another up during a full moon. That was the only reason it took us so long to eradicate them. We couldn't find them all. And our kind were not always interested in hunting them down, and humans had no skill for it. They spread terror wherever they went. It was dangerous for us. First, because their claws and teeth were capable of penetrating our flesh, much like these, but moreover, because humans sometimes mistook their kills for ours. We were afraid they might expose us all. But I am certain we killed them off ages ago."

"I'm surprised we have heard nothing of these before. They have managed to stay quite well hidden," Alec mentions offhandedly.

"They are clearly much more intelligent, more coordinated. But perhaps the reason we have never heard of these is because they are new."

"New?"

"How is it that these creatures could have been here for centuries, and we know nothing of them? They are not the werewolves we know. That much is clear. Is the entire continent filled with them? Surely not. Again, we would know. Perhaps they are a creation of the shamans. Or summoned only when desired."

"What do you mean?"

"Tanya Denali gave no evidence that these things are men who can turn into wolves. She was half mad, and I am not convinced she really knew anything, although she spoke the truth when she claimed they were dangerous. I could wring her neck for not warning us about the fire and the lightning, were she not already dead. More likely that they are creatures summoned by, or perhaps even created by, their shamans, and then sent back from whence they came when they are not needed. After all, have you ever heard of a were-bear? It's preposterous."

"Whatever they are, wherever they came from, they are powerful."

Caius sounds absurdly pleased. "It has been a long time since I battled such a challenging foe. I rather missed it! Really, now that we know what they are capable of, it's a wonder that your sister survived her first meeting with them."

"But not the second." Alec sounds like an angry little boy. "And at any rate, she did not mention these at all. Just the other shaman."

"Don't worry." Jacob can hear Caius grinning. "You'll have your revenge." After a pause, he mutters, "Now that I've seen what they can do, I'm surprised that Edward Cullen was able to get close enough to bite the other shaman, although I suppose his talent must have made all the difference. And this one seems much more powerful than the one that died. Too bad your sister was gullible enough to believe that that was the last of their conjurers."

Defensively, Alec spits back, "Jane was many things, but she was not gullible."

"Mmm. I suppose you're right," Caius murmurs. "The shamans obviously hold power over the animals around them. Perhaps they influenced her thoughts as well."

Both voices move behind Jacob as he lets relief wash over him. They do not seem to know that Bella is alive. Their ruse has held. Even if he never escapes, perhaps his Bells will still live a long, human life.

Jacob no longer hears the shuffling of feet, so he cautiously opens his eyes just a crack. He sees that the manacles around his wrists are chained to each other, as are the ones around his ankles. But he is otherwise unrestrained. Several feet away lies Jasmine. She appears to be unconscious as well, and she remains in wolf form. She, too, lies on her side. She is hogtied with thick chains, all four limbs bound together. Her fur is matted down with dark, dried blood in several places, but most of her wounds seem concentrated around her head. Her breathing is steady and slow, and otherwise she doesn't move at all. Beyond that, Jacob can only see blank, concrete walls. The door must be behind him. There are no windows. The ceiling is unfinished, piping and ductwork crisscrossing the space between the beams. He sees no furniture of any kind. They must be in a basement room somewhere. He sees nothing near him with which to attack the vampires.

He turns his attention back to his restraints. They look very thick, much more so than normal handcuffs. If these are made to contain vampires, he might not be able to free himself from them, particularly in his human form. He could try to phase; there is nothing stopping him. But if they do not break open when he phases, they will just slice into his flesh, possibly crippling him. He waits and listens, concentrating on listening beyond the walls of this room. But there is nothing. He hears no movement in the adjacent rooms, no voices or movement. He would listen for heartbeats or breathing, but amongst these enemies shall find none, not even if an army stands at attention just outside the doors.

Alec interrupts Caius's musings. "I had forgotten about the other animals. Do you think the bird was important?"

"What bird?"

"I saw an eagle circling the building when I got out of the car. There was an eagle flying over the battle, too."

Caius is silent for long seconds. "I don't know," he murmurs. "There's no way to know. It might belong to the shaman, or it might have just been a bird. There were probably a hundred birds we passed on the way."

"Perhaps," Alec answers skeptically. "It's probably nothing. But are we willing to take that chance?"

"No." Caius's voice is firm. "But we can't go anywhere now. The skies were clearing when we arrived, did you see? An uncommonly bright morning, and our windows aren't tinted. We can move when the cloud cover returns, or nightfall. Whichever comes sooner."

Jacob's hope rises and falls simultaneously. If his eagle did follow them, then the pack will have a chance to find them. But by the sound of it, they might leave before they have a chance to be found.

He could spirit walk right now, and they would not know it. He strains to see if there is anything in this room he could use to harm them. But there is no spark that he might turn into a flame to burn them, and by now they probably have no open wounds to fuel the fire. However, he is greatly tempted to spirit walk and find out exactly where he is, then go to fetch his pack. He should go now before they realize he is awake. But what he hears next stops him just as he is closing his eyes once more.

Alec's voice drops to a low hiss. "We should kill that one before it wakes. We don't need it. We have a shaman. Who cares about his mutt?"

Jacob forgets to breathe. He cannot leave Jasmine here if they are about to kill her.

"Not yet," Caius disagrees. "Death in its sleep is a kindness the bitch doesn't deserve. Besides. She may prove useful. We can pit one against the other. The animals backed off when they thought we would kill these two, did they not? Perhaps we can play them off each other."

"But they don't deserve to live!" Alec protests. "They killed my sister, they killed Chelsea. They've torn apart your kingdom. They deserve to die!"

"Of course they do!" Caius laughs. "You didn't think I was suggesting we let them live, did you? No. But I shall learn more from the dog alive than dead, and I think I will enjoy slicing it open to see what's inside, mmm? But that won't be any fun at all if it isn't awake to feel it!"

"What do you propose?"

"When they awaken, let's test their limits, shall we?"

"And the rest?"

Caius lowers his voice to a bare whisper. If Jacob did not have such an acute sense of hearing, he would never know what was said. "We'll get the information we want out of the shaman. You have my word on it. If we can learn the secret of controlling the beasts, imagine what power we could wield!"

Alec sounds like a whining child. "I don't want any pets. I want revenge!"

"And who was it who would not come and avenge your sister, hmm? Who sent her here without sufficient protection? Whose fault is it that she is gone?" When Alec doesn't respond, Caius continues, "He has made puppets of the two of you. He used Chelsea's powers to bind you to him. To bind me to him. He has made fools of us for centuries, keeping all the power for himself. We are birds in gilded cages, Alec, useful only insofar as we support him. How many times have you seen him cast aside a loyal servant when he has nothing more to steal from them? Does he support us? Or does he enslave us? I am not suggesting that we keep housepets. I am suggesting that we learn from what he has done to us for all these centuries. We enslave them for ourselves and use them to rid ourselves of the chains that he calls jewelry. And if they cannot be enslaved, then we kill them all."

Jacob is horrified. He should have seen this coming, should have figured out why Caius would leave the relative safety of Volterra, turn against Aro, to fly halfway around the world just for the chance to kill a werewolf. He may be sadistic enough to do it purely for the pleasure of the experience, but more than he wants to inflict pain, he wants power.

"I'm tired of waiting," Caius breathes. "Let's see what we can do to wake this one up." Jacob hears him moving across the floor and barely manages to close his eyes before Caius steps in view. He doesn't want them to know he has heard them.

But when he hears the slide of metal against metal, he cannot stop his heart rate from speeding up. The sound is unmistakable. Caius has a knife, and he has every intention of using it on Jasmine. He keeps his eyes closed and his breathing even, but there is no use.

"What's going on?" Alec asks.

He hears Caius kneel over him. The stench of the vampire's decayed breath washes across his face. "This one is..."

But before Caius can finish his sentence, Jacob leaps to his feet, his already-healing broken bone protesting in pain but not buckling beneath him. He cuffs Caius under the chin with his heavy shackles. The vampire's head snaps back, and Jacob notes with satisfaction a look of sheer surprise on his face at Jacob's blow. He jumps back, straining at his bonds, but they do not break. As he feared, they must be forged to restrain vampires.

Caius grins at him wickedly and leaps at him. He throws his arms up, catching Caius's neck with the chain, slowing him down. But Caius brings up his left fist to punch at Jacob's right arm, and it breaks with a hairline crack. The pain lasts only seconds, because the next thing he knows, he is enveloped in suffocating darkness. He can no longer feel the floor beneath his feet, the pain in his arm or leg, hear the sounds of his enemies' voices, or see anything except pitch black.

When the fog lifts, he finds himself chained to a large concrete support column in the middle of the room. His naked back faces out to the room, and his arms and legs are tethered around the concrete. His right forearm stings with a sharp pain, much worse than his leg. He looks around the column and sees Alec grinning at him. Jasmine is still unconscious on the floor.

Behind him, he hears a hum. "Mm. You've joined us again, I see? Very good. Where should we begin?" Jacob doesn't answer.

Caius speaks again. "Why don't I introduce myself and my companion. My name is Caius, and this is Alec. I don't believe we've had the pleasure."

"We've never had the displeasure," Jacob answers dryly.

"Aha! So it can talk! I was beginning to wonder if you would speak in the language of men or of beasts. May I ask, what is your name?"

"You can ask. You can ask anything you want."

"Will you answer?"

"What do you think?" Jacob snarls.

"I think you're going to be a lot of fun!"

"The feeling isn't mutual."

Caius moves into Jacob's line of view. His face is crossed with jagged black lines that make him look like his stone flesh is cracking. Jacob comforts himself with the knowledge that whatever happens, neither Alec nor Caius will be able to pass for human any longer. Caius wields a wicked-looking curved blade in one hand and a length of copper wire in the other. He speaks clearly and calmly as if he is just making idle conversation. "Don't you miss being away from home sometimes? Being away from your routine. Your favorite things. But sometimes, taking yourself out of your element can be a good thing. Make you get creative. Otherwise you can fall into the same old ruts all the time."

"I take it that isn't your favorite knife?"

"Oh, no. This is my very favorite," Caius shakes his head and lifts it up, holding it to the light and examining it closely. "Call it a security blanket, if you will. I always keep this close at hand. I never leave home without it." He thrusts it close to Jacob's face, just millimeters away. Jacob doesn't move. "It's a design of my own invention. Cuts through just about anything." He illustrates by pushing it into the concrete, where it chips away at the stone. "Which is useful for one such as myself. I tinkered for decades until I discovered just the right alloy. Our kind does not wound easily." He looks Jacob in the eye, amusement twinkling in his eye. "But you knew that already, didn't you?"

Jacob just looks back at him, his jaw tight. Caius stares at him for several seconds, unmoving and stony himself. But then he begins to pace back and forth in an exaggeratedly casual fashion, flipping his knife in the air and catching it deftly in his hand. "How many of my kind have you run across before?" He glances at Jacob, who says nothing. "How many have you killed?" Jacob continues to stare at him as Caius pauses in his walk, looming over Jasmine's body. Caius turns his attention back to Jacob.

"You're the strong, silent type, aren't you?"

Again, Jacob does not answer.

"So I suspected. So you're not going to tell me about these pets of yours? Not going to tell me where they came from? Are they your pets or your family?"

Caius continues pacing and flipping his knife, and Jacob continues watching him. "I liked your fireball trick. I know lots of people with lots of talents, but that one is new to me. And the lightning was impressive. I liked that quite a lot. I haven't seen that before either. I don't suppose you'd be willing to share your secret, would you?"

"You don't actually think I'm going to answer, do you?" Jacob rolls his eyes.

Caius stops in his tracks and grins. "Of course not. In fact, I'd rather you didn't. Not yet, anyway. Make me work for my answers, will you? Anyway, as I was saying earlier, I have none of my favorite things, except this." He holds up the knife again. "So I have to make do here. Let me know if it works, would you?"

And abruptly, he flashes to stand behind Jacob. In the corner of his eye, Jacob sees not the knife, but the copper wire. A millisecond later, he feels it bite into his skin, slashing across his flank like a whip. He sucks in a quick breath, but says nothing.

Caius leans around to face Jacob and says conversationally, "Well, this works rather well, does it not? I was wandering around while you were here with Alec, and I decided that I needed it more than the electrical system. I rather prefer my own whip collection. I've made a few cat o' nine tails and tipped them with little barbs of my alloy. I even have a mace made of the same stuff. And those shackles are made of it as well. But apparently, I don't need to use something quite so sophisticated for you, mmm?"

Alec, now standing behind Jacob, gestures to Caius. "Wait. Come here."

"Don't interrupt me, boy!" Caius hisses.

"No, come here. You want to see this. Didn't you leave a mark? You hit him hard enough."

"Of course I did. Not enough to break the skin, though." Caius leans back again and frowns at Jacob's back, which now looks entirely unblemished. "Let me try again." And pain lashes across Jacob's back again, causing him to gasp in pain. This time the slash is deep enough to bleed. "There, of course it would work. He is made of flesh. Not stone." But before Caius says anything more, he sees the wound start to knit together. "What?" He flicks out his makeshift whip again four times in rapid succession, leaving a criss cross pattern across Jacob's back. And within a minute, each wound is closed. "Marvelous!" he cries happily.

He walks around the pole to grin gleefully at Jacob, whose teeth are grit together from the stinging across his back and the pain of his fractured bones. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you! I have never met anyone like you. This is going to be so much fun!" And then he flashes behind Jacob again.

The next minutes feels like an hour as Caius flays Jacob's back with the copper wire. He can no longer hold in his cries, choking as agony licks across his back. He grips the column in front of him to stay upright, pressing his forehead into the cool stone as tears smear across his cheeks. Caius makes dozens of slices before settling back to watch the healing process. "Fascinating!" he exclaims.

As soon as the skin is healed over, which takes several minutes due to the extent of the injuries he inflicted, Caius asks Jacob, "What happens if you keep the wound open? Do you know? Have you ever tried?"

Jacob doesn't even open his eyes to look at Caius's face. The stench of his breath is enough to make him nauseated. He doesn't need to look at the the vampire's glee. He knows that Caius no longer even cares about the pack, his powers, or how he could use Jacob to gain power. His only goal, for the moment, is to inflict pain and test the limits of Jacob's body. "Let's find out, shall we?"

He grabs the wire in both hands, leaving about two feet between his fists, and firmly presses the wire into Jacob's flesh, sawing back and forth to break the skin. "Alec, it's like a cheese cutter!" he crows.

Jacob pants against the column, face contorted in a grimace. He grunts low in his throat to keep from screaming. The wire digs deep, biting through skin and muscle. Caius holds it firmly embedded in his flesh as he continues, "This is wonderful. I so rarely get to torture humans in this fashion. My own gluttony, I suppose. If only I could restrain my hunger long enough. But the smell of their blood is too tantalizing, while yours is just repulsive. And I could never do this with another vampire. Not even with my alloy."

Jacob can feel his body trying to expel the metal. But Caius keeps it in place. He itches and burns, struggling against his shackles in futility. They, too, dig into his flesh.

"Look!" Alec whispers, enthralled. "The skin is trying to heal over the metal!"

"Fascinating! Here, take this end." Jacob hears shuffling behind him, and Caius appears on the other side of the column. He ties the copper wire tightly around Jacob and the column, pulling it tightly so that it digs into his vertebrae. "We're doing a little experiment. I hope you don't mind."

Then he steps back to watch. Jacob strains harder against his bonds, but stops when he realizes that all he is doing is embedding the wire further. A few minutes later, he hears Caius explain, "In case you're interested, your skin has closed over the wire! It's bright red, and there is a little bleeding at the edges, but it's almost healed. Did you know that would happen?"

Jacob doesn't answer.

"Alec, I want to try something else. Do you mind?"

"Certainly." And for several blissful minutes, Jacob feels nothing.

When the mist lifts, he has been flipped over. His back is now pressed against the column, his wrists and ankles shackled behind him and around the concrete. He is pulled taut, the only movement possible his ability to turn his head. Caius has apparently cut both ends of the copper wire, but it remains lodged in his back. The vampire appears in front of him wielding his wicked-looking knife. "You've got a rather... large... chest. Quite a lot of room to write. Let's see if my alloy leaves a mark, shall we?"

The vampire hums, squinting and staring at his skin, tapping at his chin with one finger. "Aha! I have it." Jacob closes his eyes. He gains nothing by watching Caius work. At first, all he feels is Caius's finger on his skin. But then, pain. He stiffens, his entire body screaming at him to phase and resist. But he feels the strength of his shackles. They will not open when he phases, the metal will just bite into his flesh the way the copper wire is already embedded into his skin. It might slice through the tendons in his wrists and ankles, crippling him. And the pain, agonizing though it is, is only pain.

"Stop squirming!" Caius sounds like a scolding schoolteacher. "Hold still, will you?"

Jacob sweats and strains against the slashing in his skin, hissing and groaning low in his throat. He can't breathe, the pain overwhelming his most basic drives. The iron scent of his own blood mingles with the burning acid scent in his nose. Caius draws the tip of his blade in loops from one side to the other, then steps back.

"Clever," Alec chuckles, reading the words. "Dolor et gaudium. Pain and joy."

"Ah," Caius sighs in disappointment. "But look, the flesh heals already."

"But look at the blood. Beautiful."

"Si. Bellitudo." Caius waits until the skin has healed, walking in circles around the column, contemplating what to try next. Jacob's head drops forward in exhaustion. "Do you suppose all his injuries heal so quickly?"

"Why don't we find out?" Alec answers smugly.

"Let's," Caius replies. And without hesitation, he slams his fist into the hairline fracture in Jacob's right arm, snapping it cleanly as he screams in pain.

The awful sound pulls Jasmine from unconsciousness. The small orange wolf lifts her head, howling and snarling her protest, struggling against her chains. But they do not bend, and as she realizes that all four of her limbs are bound together, she shifts back to her human form, screaming. "Stop it! You bastards, get your hands off him! Don't touch him!"

Caius and Alec stare at her in astonishment. Although they had suspected she was a werewolf and not just a monstrous animal under Jacob's control, neither had ever encountered a shifter, and they did not expect her to be able to phase at will. Caius's only experience was with werewolves who phased involuntarily during the full moon, and he had never seen a werewolf shift into a naked, lovely young woman.

Their surprise gives her the opportunity to pull at her wrists and legs. The chains are loose around her more slender human limbs, and she slips out of them as they watch her. She springs to her feet and phases back to her wolven form, leaping forward to protect Jacob. But Caius's startled paralysis is over. He plants his feet and braces himself for her attack. She manages to slash a deep gash into his face before he lands a punch to her sternum, sending her reeling backward and slamming into the wall. Alec throws his mist over her before she can rush them again, and she drops back in blind confusion.

Caius hastily retrieves more shackles and hands them to Alec. He then steps close to Jacob, pressing the tip of his blade into his neck and drawing blood. "Lift it," he commands.

Alec raises his mist, and as soon as Jasmine comes to awareness, ready to jump, he shoves the knife deeper into Jacob's neck. Blood seeps from the wound. "Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast. Turn back. I'd like to talk to the girl, please."

Jasmine turns her panicked eyes to Jacob, who shakes his head. He starts to yell an Alpha order for her to stop, but before he can get out the first word, Caius clamps his hand over his mouth. The movement opens the wound further, and appalled, she shifts back into her human form.

She immediately reaches for the dress tied around her neck, but Caius stops her. "Not so fast. I rather like you this way. Much prettier than all the fur. Alec?" The mist returns, and Alec takes advantage of her complete disorientation to shackle her wrists and ankles tightly. He shoves her to the ground, where she lands with a thud of her skull against the concrete floor. "Wrap chains around her legs. I don't want her to be able to move." Alec obliges, then the mist disappears again.

Caius continues speaking to Jasmine. "I was wondering what the ridiculous necktie was all about. A wolf with a kerchief. You look absurd. But this, this is rather fetching!" He turns back to Jacob. "So these aren't just animals, mmm? Are you a wolf as well? Or perhaps a bear, as we saw in the battle?" Jacob doesn't answer. "That's allright. I'll find out eventually. I have a different question," he murmurs, pressing the knife more deeply into Jacob's neck. Jasmine cries out when she sees the tears dripping from Jacob's eyes. "Does she heal as quickly as you?"

"Don't touch her!" Jacob growls.

"That's fine too. I'm not done with you yet." He turns back to Jasmine. "Tell me, my dear. If I slice through his carotid artery, will he heal that before he dies?"

"Please, no," she weeps. "Don't hurt him!"

"How do you plan to stop me?"

"I'll do anything!"

Caius's eyebrow quirks up. "Anything?"

She nods vigorously. "Just stop hurting him!"

"In that case, tell me. How many of you are there?"

But before Jasmine can answer, Jacob barks an Alpha order. "Don't way a word!"

And Jasmine lets out a strangled whimper, her voice choked off by his command.

"Well then," Caius grins, not realizing what just happened. "We'll just do this the hard way. Or the fun way, as I like to call it." And he shoves the blade another centimeter into Jacob's neck, nicking the artery and trachea. Blood fountains across the room, hitting the floor and the opposite wall.

Jasmine wails a wordless cry as Caius yanks out the blade and steps back. A spurt of blood splashes across his face, and he wipes it away with his nose wrinkled in distaste. He steps out of the way of the splatter, crosses his arms and watches Jacob, who coughs and sputters up blood. With each beat of his heart, red spray soaks the concrete. Jacob's eyes roll back in his head before his lids drop shut, and his head lolls forward. But soon, the spray slows down to a trickle, and the wound closes. But Jacob does not stop breathing, and his heart still beats.

Jasmine weeps in terror and relief. Caius breathes, "Remarkable." Then he gleefully turns his back on Jacob and faces Alec. "He isn't dead! Amazing! I was hoping that we would..."

His words are cut off by a roar. Jacob, dizzy with blood loss and pain but only feigning unconsciousness, phases where he stands. As he expected, his shackles slice painfully into his flesh, but not so deeply as to tear through his tendons. And in his wolf form he is his strongest. He yanks at his chains until they both snap at their weakest link, and he flies at Caius, who blocks his way to Alec, clamping his jaws around the vampire's head and tearing it off.

And as Jasmine screams, Alec flings out his arms out and throws his mist over Jacob and Caius. Jacob slumps to the ground, blinking and shaking his head but unable to see, feel, or hear anything. As Jasmine weeps, Alec calmly drags Caius out of the fog, reattaches his head, and says, "You're welcome." Then he sweeps his mist over Jasmine as well, and she knows no more.

X-x-x-x-X

The sun has been up for hours when Jared jumps to his feet and points to the southeast. "There! Let's go!"

He is the only member of the pack who can see the eagle speeding toward them. But not only do his brothers and sister trust his eyesight, they cannot bear waiting any longer. In seconds, they are all sprinting to the southeast with Jared in the lead.

Within minutes, every one of them can see the eagle. Leah pushes her way to the front. Seth and Jared flank her. Embry sprints behind, the pain in his broken ribs barely registering in his mind. Paul's abdominal flesh wounds have healed entirely, and he gallops alongside Embry. Emmett and Rosalie sprint in formation with them. Brady brings up the rear and with him, Sam. He is still mute, his vocal cords not recovered in the least, his neck still throbbing with pain, and his strength depleted from blood loss. But he refuses to return to La Push when Jacob and Jasmine are alive and need him, and it isn't as if he needs his voice to communicate with his pack. So he runs.

They run for hours. They do not stop for food, water, or rest.

And in the mid afternoon, Leah is the first to approach the outskirts of a small town. Her speed has pulled her away from the pack. The faint stench of vampire blows over her with a shift in the wind, and she stops just inside the cover of the forest. The eagle lands on the roof of an large but otherwise unremarkable grey brick building. There are almost no windows, and only two cars in the parking lot by its front office. Leah circles the building until she sees the a sign that reads, "Store-House Units: Starting at $40/mo".

She says to her brothers, _I don't see the car. But I smell them. It's fresh._

_How do you want to play this?_ Jared asks her.

_I'm going in to look for them._

_Absolutely not!_ Sam retorts. _Jared and Seth are only a few minutes behind you. Wait for backup._

Leah bites back, _Every second we waste is too much! We can't leave them in there, not when I'm right here! I'm going in._

_Wait!_ Seth yells. _I can go in without being seen. They can't touch me in spirit form. Let me._ And before Leah can refuse him, he winks out of the pack mind. A minute later, Leah looks up to see her brother's transparent form pass above her head.

_Seth does not possess Jacob's ability to see the bright lights at the center of living things, but he can easily walk through walls. So he quickly dips down into the building and flies through it. He moves through darkened rooms, his supernatural senses allowing him to peer through the gloom. He walks through boxes piled from floor to ceiling, furniture haphazardly tossed into the units, bags of old clothes, broken appliances, two pianos, and even a taxidermied elk. But he finds nothing on the first floor. The basement reveals as much, and he despairs until he lowers himself into the sub basement. _

_And in the third room, he wishes he had found nothing. The room is twenty feet long and ten feet wide. A single, wide, circular concrete column stands in the center. It's surface is smeared with dark red. The same viscous liquid pools on the floor and paints the opposite wall in splashes reminiscent of a Jackson Pollock painting. _

_The room is empty, but for the streaks and pools of blood._

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: As always, thanks to my wonderful beta, Babs81410. Next update will be on Monday.


	37. Chapter 36

Warning: Graphic violence continues. If the last chapter was too disturbing, I suggest skimming until the italicized section, which contains sexuality. And if you aren't supposed to read that either (ie if you are a minor), you ignored my warning in the prologue and damn, have you been reading the wrong bedtime story.

X-x-x-x-X

June 6

X-x-x-x-X

It is mid-morning when Bella's right leg begins to throb all of a sudden, and noting her distress, the dog jumps onto the couch and nuzzles at her gently. She strokes behind its ears to distract herself. Rachel finally convinces Bella to take a cup of tea. But as soon as she reaches out to take it, she drops the mug with a cry of surprise and pain. As the liquid soaks into the carpet, tears spring to her eyes and she grabs at her right arm.

"What happened?" Rachel asks, alarmed, and the dog jumps to its feet and yips in surprise.

"His arm. It's broken!"

Billy rolls into the room from the kitchen, where he had been staring blankly at an untouched cup of yogurt. "What's happening?"

Bella cradles her arm protectively to her chest, but after only seconds, she lets go and presses her hands to her heart. "Oh. It stopped. The pain stopped."

"Why? What stopped? Why did it stop?" Rachel demands frantically, staring at Bella clutching her chest.

Bella tries to reassure her. "Alec must have used his power. It felt like this the last time, when they broke his leg. The pain was sudden, sharp, but all of a sudden, gone."

"So he's okay? I mean, he's not, he's not..."

Bella jumps to her feet, glaring at Rachel. "He's alive! I know he's alive. He has to be!"

Billy rolls toward her and catches her hand as the dog whimpers, looking back and forth between them. Dark circles have formed under Billy's bloodshot eyes, and his normally excellent posture has been replaced with a hunch. "You're right, Bella. You're right." She knows he is reassuring himself as much as he is reassuring her. "Let's clean up that mess, shall we?"

Rachel retrieves a few kitchen towels, and she and Bella do an absurdly thorough job sopping up the tea in their attempt to distract themselves from their fear. Rachel peeks at Bella from her position kneeling on the floor. "Do you think he's got anything yet?"

Bella looks at her watch. "He's only been gone fifteen minutes. I don't think he's made it to the station yet."

Rachel's face falls. "Oh. It felt like at least an hour. I wish we didn't just have to sit here worrying. I'm jealous of Leah. I know it's ridiculous; she'd love not to morph into a giant animal. But I'd give just about anything to be able to get out there and look for him. I hate being so helpless."

"Don't sell yourself so short, Rachel. We might not be able to help out right now, but he would never have killed Irina without your help. You helped save Leah's life."

"So did you! And you didn't just light a match. You ran into the thing with Leah's car, right? Paul said it was totally badass!"

"Yeah," Bella blushes. "That was just sort of dumb luck."

Billy shakes his head. "It was dumb, Bella, but it wasn't luck. It was bravery. Just like you were brave," he nods to his daughter, "when you ran down to help your brother and Leah. Your mother would be very proud. And appalled that you'd put yourself at risk. But still proud."

That brings out a hint of a smile on Rachel's lips. Bella stands, walking toward the laundry room with the wet towels. But right after she drops them in the hamper, the pain in her right arm suddenly returns. "Oh! He's awake again. Oh, god."

Rachel rushes in. "Is it something else? What's happening?"

Bella winces. "No, no. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. It's still the arm. And the leg from last night, but that's not half as bad. It's okay. It's okay," she murmurs, mostly to herself.

"Does it hurt to stand on your leg? Maybe you should go lie down."

"I don't know," Bella shakes her head. "Whatever's happening isn't happening to me, so probably not."

"But it can't hurt, right? I don't want something to happen to him and have you fall and hit your head or something."

Bella doesn't want to lie down, but it might make Rachel feel better. Not to mention that she doesn't want Billy to see how much pain she is in. It will only make him worry about his son more than he already is. "Sure. Why not?"

So they make their way to the two twin beds in his room that Jacob has pushed together, and Bella lies down. Rachel sits down on the edge, then stands up and starts to walk away. She stops, turns around, uncertain what to do with herself, and finally lies down beside Bella and takes her hand. Bella doesn't refuse the touch. It isn't comforting in the way that Jacob's is, but she concentrates on the feeling of Rachel's warm skin to distract herself.

It doesn't work.

But when a sharp, stinging pain lances across her left flank, she cries out and involuntarilysqueezes Rachel's hand so hard that it hurts. Rachel sits up in alarm. "What was that?"

But before she can answer, the pain increases exponentially, sweeping across Bella's entire back. She screams. Billy's wheelchair gets stuck in the doorjamb in his rush to get inside to find out what is going on. Bella thrashes on the bed as each lash crosses Jacob's back. Tears stream down her face as she grits her teeth together and tries to hold in the shrieks racing up her throat. She rolls onto her side, facing the wall, and curls up into a ball. Rachel grabs her shoulder and wraps her own body around Bella's, not knowing what else to do, as Bella shakes and cries. The dog paces in the hallway and whines.

Later, Bella relaxes incrementally and chokes out, "Don't ask me. Please." She doesn't turn around to see the tears streaming down Billy's cheeks, but she feels the terror in Rachel's grip. Her back burns, but still she is not prepared for the line of agony that presses itself into her flesh. She screams again and arches involuntarily, almost smashing her skull into Rachel's face.

And although she eventually gets a few minutes of blissful reprieve, Bella despairs. She cannot stop crying even when all the pain disappears. She knows that if the pain does not return, neither will her Jacob. She weeps until the pain begins again.

Bella doesn't know how long it lasts, but she spends the entire time clutching at Rachel, who cries with her. Billy finally unwedges his chair from the doorway, and they hear him retching in the bathroom. After that, she is unable to hear anything above her own screams. She doesn't hear Billy on the phone with his sister pleading, "Then Collin has to try harder! Do you hear that? That's happening to my boy right now! He has to find him!"

When it finally stops, Rachel hears Bella muttering to herself softly. Over and over, she repeats, "He's alive. He's alive. He's alive." She can't help but think that Bella is only trying to convince herself.

After half an hour free of pain, Bella rises from Jacob's bed and calls her father. Very quietly, she says, "You have to find him, dad. They're hurting him."

A lump forms in Charlie's throat, preventing him from speech for several seconds. "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Bella answers quietly. "It stopped for now. But you have to find him before they hurt him again."

Charlie tries to focus. "I ran the license plate Seth gave us and did a little checking. It's registered to a woman who died three years ago, which doesn't exactly jive with the fact that the car itself was only built last year. I'm trying to sort out the mess, see if it leads anywhere."

"Okay."

"The pack's out looking, right?"

"Yeah."

"He's going to be okay, Bella." Charlie tries to sound confident. "He's worth more alive to them than dead, okay?"

Bella has to hang up before she bursts into tears again. "Okay. I'll let you keep working."

"I'll let you know if I learn anything."

Bella wanders around the little red house for hours, dazed, until she sees a bottle of sunblock on his dresser. Tears threaten to overwhelm her as she thinks of the date they meant to have. More than anything, she wants to be playing on the beach with him, not stuck here waiting, unable to help him at all. But before she returns the bottle to its rightful locaton, the pain begins again. Then she curls up in a ball on Jacob's bed and tries not to scream.

X-x-x-x-X

Jacob regains awareness very suddenly. The first thing he registers is searing pain around his neck. He feels his arms restrained above his head and on either side of him. His ankles are similarly shackled, his feet about three feet apart. His eye snap open to reveal Caius reclined in a plush red velvet chair. Alec stands beside him smiling smugly. Jasmine is nowhere to be seen. One glance reveals the purpose of the unusual room. The walls are painted a rich brown. An ornate wardrobe stands in the corner, its doors opened to reveal an array of whips, chains, paddles, and other objects that Jacob can only guess at. In the other corner, a steel frame with a complicated set of harnesses and ropes hanging from the beams. Jacob himself is in the center of the room, tethered to sturdy metal girders. He is unable to turn his head to see what sits behind him.

Caius gestures at the room with a smile. "Do you like it?"

Jacob shrugs, then immediately regrets it. He realizes that Caius has wrapped razor wire around his neck. The movement pushed the blades further into his flesh. "Not my style." His voice is raspy. "I don't need all these ridiculous toys to please my partner, or show her who is in control."

Caius laughs in delight. "Toys, mmm? We'll see if you still think of them as toys when we're done with you." He stands and moves to the wardrobe, fingering the implements sensually. "Maybe we'll have time to try all of them. And then you can tell us which are your favorite. And we'll see how long it takes for you to learn who here is in control."

"This entire room is ridiculous," Jacob sneers. "Ripped straight out of a bad porno."

"Ah, I can't take credit for the cliched design. This room, the whole house, actually, belongs to an old friend of mine with rather pedestrian sexual tastes. He dabbles, plays at domination really, without having any real flair for it. But not everything is as banal as it looks. That St. Andrew's Cross, for instance, that you're shackled to. Try to free yourself. Go ahead."

Jacob just narrows his eyes at Caius. The restraint is strong. There is no weak link here for him to break. The shackles are welded to the metal, and the metal well-secured to the floor and ceiling. "Why, just to make these razors dig into my neck more?"

"Yes, well. I'm rather proud of that idea. That, for example, is something that my friend, the one whose house we are in, would never have thought of. I'm fairly certain you can't escape from those particular shackles, as everything in this room is designed to be strong enough to hold a vampire, not just a human. But just in case, since I don't want you morphing into that beast, restrained or not, I thought that wire might slow you down. You see, I noticed that your wolf is rather larger than you are. Impressive, actually, since you are so very tall to begin with. But that wire will not break if you change into a wolf. It will just slice open all the veins and arteries in your neck. Alright? So I suggest that you don't move."

Jacob doesn't answer.

"Not feeling very talkative now, are we?" Caius picks up a long whip. "That's alright. We'll get there, you and I. You'll tell me what I want to know." He starts to circle the cross. "Let's start with the animals. I thought perhaps they were true animals, but that's not the case, is it? Each one of you is a woman or a man, are you not? How many of you are there?"

Jacob just glares at Caius as he walks past.

"No? Nothing? How about this. I'll lash you for every one that I saw. And then we'll see what you say." He pulls the whip taut between his fists and flicks it out to the side, where it makes a snapping sound.

"The silver one who leapt on my secretary." The whip stings against Jacob's chest, opening a thin red line. Jacob makes no sound. "That's one."

"The brown one who helped him." A burning stroke in the opposite direction, releasing more blood. Jacob closes his eyes. "That's two."

"The huge black one who stayed with them." A tear across both thighs. Jacob grunts. "That's three."

"The spotted one that ran after Afton. He makes four." A slice on his right arm. "I'd love to know how they knew he was there, by the way. Perhaps you'd like to tell me?" Another across his left. Jacob hisses in pain, but says nothing.

"Five. The other brown one who went with the Cullens." Another lash against his chest. "Who deserve even worse than you're getting right now. Turncoats," he growls, and strikes Jacob once more for each of them.

"For that matter," he spits out, "This is for Carlisle, that traitor." The whip stings Jacob's left cheek. "His pathetic little wife." The right cheek. "The seer." His right side. "And her mate." Across his stomach.

"Ready to tell me about the rest of them, then? Tell me about your relationship with the pathetic vegetarian vampires," he sneers.

Jacob spits at him, the sticky globule landing on Caius's shirt. "Fuck you."

Caius swipes it away with a frown of distaste. "Thank you, no. You're really not my type. Although the owner of this house would appreciate you, other than that awful smell. Good thing we don't need to breathe, eh? Perhaps when we're done, I'll leave you here as a little thank you gift for granting us use of the facilities." He stretches out the whip again. "At any rate, I'm rather glad you haven't given in yet. I was hoping to finish my count. There's the little gray one who arrived right at the end. Almost had me there. A bitch, I think? She's the sixth. She's worth at least three lashes." And the whip crosses Jacob's abdomen again, and again, and again. Jacob gasps from the agony.

"And the lovely little thing that we brought with us." This stroke opens another line across both of Jacob's legs. Caius returns to the wardrobe and sets down the whip, exchanging it for a wicked-looking mace on the end of a long chain. "Seven."

"And finally, you yourself. Eight." He begins to swing the chain around and around, walking slowly toward Jacob. Gradually, the spiked end comes closer and closer to Jacob's face. He watches it approach, his gut churning with nausea and pain, but keeps his mouth closed. "Have any answers for me?" Jacob just closes his eyes. "I was hoping that would be your answer. I do love using these things." And he buries the mace in Jacob's belly, slicing it open in three lines. Jacob screams. His entire body is on fire with the pain. The sensation almost saves him. He couldn't form coherent words to answer and betray his pack even if he wanted to. His head lolls forward. All his energy is focused on healing his injuries. He can spare none to keep his head upright.

Caius steps back, dropping the mace and folding his arms across his chest. He stares at Jacob in fascination, murmuring, "Beautiful."

Alec comes up behind him, his red eyes shining with sadistic satisfaction. "Look at the trails of blood, Caius. Almost a shame it smells so repulsive."

"Although perhaps we should be grateful for that. You and I both would have lost our battle against our thirst long before, were it not for the awful stench. This way, look at the art we are creating."

"He heals so quickly! It's like stop motion photography." Alec marvels, and they stop to watch his skin. The gaping wounds in Jacob's abdomen still gape open, but the bleeding has already slowed. And of the slices in his flesh made by the whip, his dark skin is crossed back and forth with bright red lines, but only a few still openly weep.

"What next, do you think? What else shall we try?" Caius peers into the wardrobe.

"I don't think you really need those. I'd like to try, but not with any of that." Alec waves his hand dismissively at the wardrobe.

"What do you have in mind?"

Alec cautiously approaches Jacob, who still hangs limply from the cross. "I'd like to feel a bone breaking and knitting back together."

"Be my guest!" Caius says magnanimously, with a sweeping gesture of his arm.

Alec examines Jacob closely, finally selecting one of the gashes crossing Jacob's upper abdomen. Rib is still exposed. He tentatively pushes his index and middle fingers into the wound as Jacob snarls at him. Gently, carefully, he pushes forward with the tips of his fingers, until he hears a crack, and the bone splits beneath the pressure. Jacob chokes and curses at him, and he looks up curiously into Jacob's angry face. But he keeps his fingers in the wound, holding it open, to feel the bone come together.

Caius looks over his shoulder. "Do you feel anything?"

"It's the oddest thing. It's resisting my hand." For the next several minutes, he doesn't move. Jacob almost passes out, but there is no such relief for him.

Eventually, Caius grows bored of simply watching. "I want to feel."

"This one?" Alec asks. "Or a fresh one?"

"I'd like to feel it from the start."

"Of course." Alec steps aside, and Caius pulls out his blade.

He chooses the ribs on the opposite side and touches the tip to Jacob's skin. He smiles at him in a parody of a reassuring expression and murmurs, "Don't worry. This won't hurt a bit."

And then he slices the skin open. Jacob hisses and struggles against his bonds, but there is nowhere to go. So when Caius presses his fingers in the cut and snaps another rib, asking, "So, are you ready to talk?", all Jacob can do is scream.

But the blinding pain clears his mind. His entire world has narrowed into this small room, these two monsters. When he is finally able to form words again, he looks Caius in the eyes and whispers, "Never."

Alec looks between Jacob and Caius. "I don't think you're going to get any answers out of him this way."

Caius whirls to glare at Alec, removing his hand from Jacob's body. "Then what do you suggest? I don't suppose he'll accept a bribe. The bitch wasn't exactly forthcoming."

"Although she wept like a baby, and you didn't inflict nearly so much pain on her.

Caius steps close to Jacob, examining him thoughtfully. "Bring her in," he murmurs.

Alec disappears, and Caius settles into the chair, smiling darkly at Jacob, who keeps his eyes closed as his head tips forward. Otherwise he can see the wounds in his abdomen, and somehow, knowing just how gruesome they look makes the pain even worse. Instead, Jacob pulls up a mental image of his Bella, smiling at him over her shoulder, giggling as he chases her down the beach, laughing as she allows herself to be caught and rolled into the sand. His Bella will be safe, and that is all that matters.

By the time Alec drags Jasmine in, her eyes open and blinking in confusion against the blinding smoke surrounding her, her dress tattered and almost falling off her body, dried blood flaking off her skin, Jacob's wounds have mostly closed.

"Ah, here she is. Wrap her in chains. But leave a little bit exposed," Caius commands.

Alec opens a drawer in the wardrobe and draws out a length of chain, the links even thicker than the ones used on them in the last room. He winds it around Jasmine's body, starting at her ankles, wrapping her as tight as a mummy. The chain goes up to her hips, where Alec padlocks it tight. He takes out a second chain and binds her arms against her sides from her shoulders to her elbows, leaving her forearms and hands free. Then he drops her rudely to the floor and lifts his mist.

Jasmine squirms and twists, but there is nowhere for her to go. Caius kicks her over so that she faces Jacob. She moans a wordless cry of grief when she sees him bound to the St. Andrew's Cross, newly healed scars marring his skin, trails of still-wet blood dripping down his body and pooling to the floor, droplets of blood oozing from around the wounds in his neck where the razors bite him. He croaks out, "It's okay. I'm okay."

Caius kneels over Jasmine and says, "Your companion has been less than revealing, much like yourself. So I'm going to try something else. I'm going to ask you some questions. And for every one that you don't answer, I draw another line." He slides his curved knife out of its sheath, hanging at his hip, and holds it only millimeters in front of her left eye. Jasmine holds her breath and doesn't move.

He stands and walks to Jacob, running his fingers through the blood on Jacob's chest, tracing a swirling pattern. He presses the tip of the blade into Jacob's skin, drawing a fresh drop of blood. "First question." He turns back to Jasmine. "How many of you are there?"

Jasmine's eyes grow wide and terrified, but bound by Jacob's Alpha order not to speak, she is unable to respond. She shakes her head wildly and groans an incomprehensible sound. Caius frowns and draws the blade down, drawing a superficial slice in Jacob's chest and abdomen. Jacob grits his teeth and tears spring to his eyes. Jasmine begins to weep, but she can say nothing.

Now Caius starts to get irritated. "How many?" he demands, and slashes another slice next to the first. Jacob snarls and gasps. Jasmine moans again, then begins to gesture at her mouth with her hands. Caius cocks his head at her, frowning. She closes her fists, then begins to open her fingers one by one.

Alec gasps. "Oh! You're trying to answer! One, two, three, four..."

"Stop!" Jacob roars an Alpha order. "Don't give anything away! Not even if they kill me!"

Jasmine cries out, shutting her eyes in frustration and closing her fists shut instantly.

"Do you want to watch us kill him?" Caius yells. "This doesn't have to be so difficult! If you won't tell me how many of you there are, tell me where to find the rest of you!"

Jasmine just shakes her head.

"Fine! Then he gets another pretty mark on his chest!" And he makes a horizontal slash just below Jacob's clavicles. Jasmine sobs, looking at Jacob and shaking her head back and forth. "No? Nothing?" Caius continues. "Then how about this?" And he fiercely drives his knee into Jacob's right leg, rebreaking the newly healed fracture.

Jacob howls in pain, and Jasmine screams. He himself is close to breaking, and the sound of her wails almost puts him over the edge. "Fuck you, you filthy leech!" Jacob screams.

"Tell me what I want to know!" Caius rages. "Who are you, how many of you are there, and where do I find the rest of them?" He drops his knife to the floor and starts pummelling Jacob with punches to his partly-healed gut. Air rushes out of Jacob's lungs as his body burns. He heaves and grunts with each blow, pain making his vision blurry.

And behind Caius, Jasmine screams. She has no words, no rebuttal, no way to defend her imprint and her Alpha, so she gives the only protest she can.

Alec looks between them. "Caius," he calls out. He has to repeat it several times, as the ancient monster has lost himself in his abuse. "Caius. Caius, I don't think she can answer."

"What?" Caius turns around.

"Look at her." Alec gestures to Jasmine, writhing on the ground and shrieking, tears streaming into her hair. "She would tell you if she could." He points at Jacob. "He stopped her. Remember?"

Caius blinks and whips his head back and forth, looking at both of them. "Remember what, exactly?"

"Earlier he said, 'Don't say a word.' Those exact words. And she literally hasn't said one word since then. And she was in the middle of answering your question. With her fingers. She was counting out the number of them. And as soon as he told her to, she stopped. I think she can't answer you because he told her not to. He has some kind of hold over her."

Jasmine has stopped squirming and whimpering, and lays still on the floor, staring at Alec. Caius narrows his eyes. "He's right, isn't he?" Jasmine doesn't move, so he turns back to Jacob. "You are the shaman. You have power over the rest of them. It's true." He points back at Jasmine. "I know her kind. She shouldn't be able to withstand what we're doing to you, and she definitely shouldn't have been able to withstand what we did to her. But she didn't talk because she couldn't. Not like you."

He grins sadistically at Jacob. "There's no point in torturing you. Except for fun, of course," he laughs. Then he walks back to the wardrobe. "I think you'll end up unconscious before I learn anything from you. And I need you awake if I am to learn anything more from you." He fingers various implements one by one. "There is one thing I think I can learn from you right now, though." He turns around, a cat o' nine tails in his hand. "This will do nicely. Not quite as pretty as the one I have at home." He approaches, holding the weapon with both palms open and facing upward, displaying it to Jacob. "My favorite has a much nicer handle. A master craftsman etched the prettiest pattern into the femur bone of one of my favorite whores and embedded it in the grip. But the rest of it is the same. These little barbs on the end? They're my design. I gifted this one to my friend. Let's see how it works on her, shall we?" And in a flash, he is standing over Jasmine. He kicks her onto her belly and tears the fabric of her dress in the opening between the chains on her upper and lower body.

"Don't touch her!" Jacob roars.

"No? Not like this?" And with a flick of his wrist, Caius tears nine thin lines across the skin of Jasmine's lower back. She screams.

"You monster! Stop! I'll tell you what you want to know! Just don't hurt her!"

Caius straightens. "Ah, so you can be cooperative. So how many of you are there?"

Jacob squeezes his eyes shut tightly and grits his teeth together.

Caius lifts the whip again. "Do you need more motivation?"

"Eight," Jacob lies. "You've seen us all."

Caius whips Jasmine's back again, and she cries out. "How many?"

"Eight!" Jacob screams back. "We didn't know if there would be two of you or twenty. We brought our entire force!"

"And where are the rest of them?"

"I don't know where they are right now, probably looking for us."

"What about the bear? You said eight, but there are at least nine. The bear attacked us."

"The bear is just a bear. I asked it for help," Jacob denies. "It wasn't very hard to convince. It knows you're monsters."

"So the bear isn't one of you?" Caius looks skeptical.

"You saw eight wolves and one bear. You do the math."

Alec scoffs, "You asked it for help?"

"One of my many talents," Jacob spits back sarcastically.

Caius changes his line of questioning. "Where do you live?"

Jacob lies smoothly and immediately. "All over. I live where you found us."

"No one lives in those parks," Caius sniffs.

"Exactly. No one else lives there. Where else do you think eight giant wolves are going to live? Condos? We're part of the land. There is no other untouched wilderness. Some prefer the Cascades, or Mt. Rainier."

It is plausible enough that Caius doesn't push further. "And why on earth are you fighting alongside the Cullens? Why are you protecting them?"

Now Jacob tells the truth. There is no reason to lie, and peppering truths with falsehoods will hopefully make his answers more believable. "Our loyalty lies with Carlisle and Rosalie. They've helped us in the past. The grey female wolf?"

"What about her?" Caius frowns. "She was injured badly when she fought Irina. Carlisle and Rosalie helped her. We owe her life to them."

"So Tanya was telling the truth," Caius nods.

"Doubtful," Jacob snorts. "Half truths, if that. We never touched Jane, Felix, or Chelsea."

Alec jumps forward. "Liar! You killed my sister!"

Jacob shakes his head as far as the wire around his neck allows him to. "Why would I lie? You already have me here, and I know you're not letting me out alive. I'd gladly take credit for her death if I was responsible for it. I've killed plenty of bloodsuckers. But not her."

"If you didn't kill them, how did you know who we were looking for?" Alec retorts.

"Until they disappeared, Alice Cullen gave us information."

Caius narrows his eyes. "And where are they now?"

"Do you really think they'd tell us where they went? I don't know. Rosalie and Emmett don't know. And even if we did have a location at one point, which we never did, I have to assume they're moving around. It isn't as if they need to stay in one place, is it? All they need is a source of animal blood."

Caius grins at him. "I'm surprised you get along with them. After all, you are basically animals yourselves."

"We're at the top of the food chain, just like they are," Jacob answers.

"Yes, I suppose you are," Caius nods. "Your wolves are rather marvelous, aren't they? The size of horses. But even that is nothing compared to your trick with the lightning and the fire. I'd like to see those again, I think." Alec glares at Caius, who sees the black scorch marks crossing his face. "Ah, well, not one of those sorts of demonstrations, no. Both of us have had enough of being shocked, I think. But perhaps you could set those ropes on fire?" He points to the harness in the corner.

"I can't. Not like this."

"Not like what?"

"You found me in that trance, remember? I can't achieve that state like this. Stung up here with this shit around my neck? I can withstand a lot of pain, but I can't get into that trance in the middle of it."

Caius crosses his arms over his chest, eyeing Jacob skeptically. "I don't think I believe you."

"Believe, don't believe. It's still the truth."

"Bullshit," Caius sneers. Then he whips Jasmine's back three times and glares at Jacob. "Show me! Show me what you can do!"

"Nothing! Nothing like this," Jacob yells back. "Stop hurting her! Don't you think that if I could access my powers, I'd have done it already? To hurt you, and to escape? Do you think we'd still be chained up here if I could use my powers? If I could use them, we'd be free, and you'd be dead!"

The half-truth works. It makes too much sense. "Fine. But what else can you do? In your trance, I mean."

Jacob just glares at him until he raises the whip over Jasmine. "You saw what I can do. Control the weather. Rain, lightning, thunder. Speak with animals. Call down fire." He leaves out details of the actual spirit walk, which is the only skill that gives him any hope here. If he can spirit walk outside, he can figure out where he is and notify his pack.

"And the others?"

"Wolves. No one has my powers, except some can speak to animals. As you said, I am the shaman, and we are all animals."

"And her?" Alec asks, pointing at Jasmine.

"She has her wolf."

Caius glances at Alec. "Take her back to the other room."

Alec drops his mist over Jasmine and throws her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, then disappears from the room. Caius stares, assessing him, until Alec returns. Jacob licks his parched lips. "If you want any more answers from us, you'll need to give us water. I've lost too much blood. And I need to take a piss."

Alec shakes his head. "Why should we care about your weak human needs?"

"If you like the smell of urine, I'll go ahead and let loose right here. But I'm still going to pass out eventually if you don't give me something to drink."

Caius tilts his head, considering, then nods at Alec. Jacob watches the vampire's smoke approach him, and his pain, along with everything else, disappears for several wonderful minutes. When he regains awareness, he is alone but still shackled to the cross, but his shorts are gone, and a bucket is between his feet. He relieves himself, and then Alec appears to takes the bucket away.

Caius reenters. "Humans are disgusting, and I have no desire to watch that. I think I'll not give you water. I'd hate for you to have to do that again." He begins to pace. "Now, now. What to do about you. I'd like a few minutes to confer with my colleague. Alec, do you mind?"

Very low, enough that a normal human would not hear, Alec whispers, "He isn't the only thirsty one. I need to eat, and soon."

Caius answers in rapid-fire, low speech, not meant for Jacob's ears. "I do not trust him not to free himself while you are gone."

"Knock him out," Alec suggests. "It worked before. You can watch the girl while he's under, and you'll be here to restrain him if he wakes and tries to escape, and I'll bring something back for the both of us."

Caius grins. "I like the way you think. But you should stay here. You can incapacitate them more easily than I can." And before Jacob has a chance to figure out how to prevent it, Caius grabs him by his hair and slams his head backward into the metal beam again and again until he feels no more. He has no idea when Caius departs to search for a victim, and is wholly unaware of Alec moving down the hall to see if he can get any more information out of Jasmine.

_Jacob's spirit wanders. There is darkness behind him. It is pure black and wholly evil. He runs, but his feet feel like they are buried in quicksand. No matter how hard he pushes, he cannot speed up. Black smoke swirls around him, suffocating and acrid. He can't see his own hand in front of his face. Even so, he knows where to go. His heart pulls him forward. _

_There is comfort ahead. Somewhere in the inky black, there is solace. Warmth. He can feel it. And so he moves forward blindly, eyes trying to pierce through the dark._

_And then he sees it. A yellow glow struggling against the dark. He pushes himself, his eyes tearing and lungs burning from the choking smoke. But he knows where to go, and he moves ever forward. _

_And he finds himself in front of his home. Light shines in every window. It is warm and welcoming and beckons him inside._

_His Bells is there._

_He eagerly pushes open the front door, slamming it against the fog. He runs into his bedroom, throwing open that door as well. She unfurls herself from the little ball she had tucked herself into and wipes the tears from her face. "Where have you been?" she cries, sobbing._

_He kneels down and wraps himself around her. "I'm right here." He kisses the top of her head, then every inch of her face. _

_She pulls back, holding him at arm's length so she can look at him. She runs her fingers across his cheeks and her thumb over his bottom lip. She stares at him with wide eyes, unbelieving. "You're here?"_

_He grasps her hands in his and kisses each knuckle gently. Then he pulls her up and presses his lips to hers. "I'm here."_

_They hold each other for what feels like hours, but probably isn't. They breathe each other in. She allows his presence to comfort her, and hers to comfort him. And the longer they stay in each other's arms, the harder it is to remember that anything was ever wrong. She finally breaks away to run her hands over his skin. She peers at him with concern while she still remembers that something is amiss. "Are you hurt?"_

_He frowns. "Should I be?" He can't recall, but here and now, he feels perfect. She is here, so everything is as it should be. Except for the nagging feeling that soon, it won't be. He can't stand the thought, so he shoves it aside._

_"I don't know." She shakes her head in frustration. "I just don't know."_

_"I don't know either," he admits. He cups her cheeks in his hands, then kisses her gently on her forehead. He looks into her warm eyes and knows that no one else sees him the way she does. Knows that no one else sees into his heart, sees the truth of him, sees every strength and flaw, every fear masked as bravery, each anxiety covered with bravado, and still loves him for exactly who he is. But as she stares back at him, she knows that he works past every flaw, overcomes every fear, and turns each anxiety into bravery. But most of all, in his eyes she sees love._

_He sees the movement of her pulse in her neck, and knows that no matter what happens to him, so long as her heart beats, he will have a reason to go on. The corners of his lips turn up in a smile, and he cannot be sad. Here, he has exactly what he needs. _

_His fear subsides. _

_"Does it matter?" He tilts her chin up with the tip of his finger. He wants to feel good. He wants her to feel good. So he kisses her again, gently. She doesn't stop him, so he parts his lips, and it turns passionate. Her mouth opens, and she tastes him. She tries to drink him in, wanting to absorb him so that he is a permanent part of her. Her body becomes pliant against his, whatever anxiety she feels melting away. He shifts against her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her flush against him. In return, she clutches at his shoulders, his back, his arms. She still doesn't quite believe he is here._

_He, in turn, is deeply grateful to be in her presence. He knows what it is like to be without her, and wishes he never has to experience it again. But it simply isn't possible. But here, tonight, he will give himself to her once again, and have her as his own. _

_He lowers her to the bed. He can't decide if it is worth separating their bodies long enough to pull her shirt over her head. He fingers the edge and vaguely recognizes it as one of his own. He delays the decision by kissing her again and squeezing at her hips, waist, and ribcage. She is here, and she is his, and nothing else matters. _

_But she remembers that something does. He is above her, kissing her like it's the last time he'll ever get the chance, and when that thought finally registers in her brain, she tries to push him back. "Wait, wait."_

_"Mmm." He doesn't stop. He just drops kisses along her jaw, down her neck, suckles at the spot behind her ear that drives her mad. So she squirms as the sensation washes over her, and her train of thought is derailed. His tongue, his lips, his teeth, his hands, she cannot think about anything else. "You taste so good," he moans._

_He finally decides that he needs access to the rest of her skin more than he needs anything else, so he leans back just far enough to start dragging up her shirt. She looks at the serious expression on his face, the hard line of his jaw, and the little furrow between his brow. Something about his desperate edge triggers something in her. _

_"Hold on." She grabs his wrist._

_But he refuses to stop. He never wants to stop. He wants to lose himself in her body, in her heart, and never find his way out again. It isn't just about lust. It is about belonging. "I need you," he shakes his head, and he pulls her shirt above her breasts. When he sees them, his mouth begins to water, and he licks his lips. _

_And before she can utter another protest, he descends on her. He nips, he bites, he licks, and he tugs. He braces himself with one arm and runs his other hand across every accessible patch of flesh. She arches and drags her fingers through his hair, and she forgets about anything else except the sensation of him against her. When he suckles on one side and traces the outline of the mark on her breast with the other, she opens her legs and he falls between them. He lavishes attention on the subtle indentation that brands her as his. She braces her feet against the mattress and pushes her still-clothed hips against his belly, and he grinds himself into her and into the linens beneath them. _

_He releases her breast with a pop and blows hot air across the peak, and he growls, "I need to please your body. I need you to feel good." He doesn't voice it, but there is a primal urge for an unknown something, nagging at the edges of his consciousness, that he can only find in her. He tugs the shirt over her head._

_It triggers another buried memory. "Why?" she moans as he lowers himself down against her once more. "Why do we need to feel good so badly?"_

_He ignores her. Whatever memories she is trying to dredge up are too awful to consider. All he wants is to pleasure them both before he returns to whatever Hell he came from, and to seek his salvation in her. He draws her breast deep into his mouth and massages with his tongue, and with his free hand he hooks the edge of her panties and starts to nudge them down her slim legs._

_He manages to push them off, but when he wants to slide his hand between her thighs, has to move himself out of the way to do so. It separates him from her long enough for her to remember again. "Jacob." She pushes at his shoulders. He growls and nips at her breast. "Jacob, what's going on?"_

_He fingers her soft lips, finding them bare, wet, and ready for him, so he slides two fingers deep inside her. "I'm pleasing your sweet pussy with my hand," he mumbles. And after he demonstrates, he pulls out and sucks her flavor off his fingers greedily. Then he rubs his thumb over her clitoris, pushes his fingers back inside, and kisses her skin again as she moans and succumbs. When he realizes she isn't protesting, he lifts his head up again to say, "I'm going to make you come with my fingers. And then I'm going to take you with my cock until you come all over that too."_

_And then he proceeds to do just that._

_He knows exactly how to touch her. He knows exactly what she likes. He knows what makes her wet, what makes her tremble, what makes her wild. He knows how to replace every fleeting thought in her brain with want. He knows the fastest way to break her apart._

_So he reaches deep in her body and pumps as firmly as she can stand. The heel of his hand bumps her clitoris over and over. He nudges her head to turn to the side and tongues the spot behind her ear that makes her entire body vibrate, and then he murmurs in her ear exactly what she feels like trapped beneath him and around his touch. He describes in lurid detail all the things he wants to do to her when he removes his hand and replaces it with his cock. In the back of his mind, he knows that he will be yanked away from her before he gets a chance to do most of them, but he doesn't care. He will take what he can before he goes, he will give everything he has, and he can only hope it will be enough. _

_And when he stops the pistoning of his fingers long enough to curl and sweep, again, and again, and again, when he bends his thumb in to circle her clitoris gently, when he licks and suckles his way down to the mark on her breast and carefully reclaim her as his once more with his teeth, he knows the exact moment when she loses awareness of everything around her except him. _

_Her pleasure is his pleasure, and he drags it out of her and surrounds them both with it. _

_But his sheets feel like sandpaper against his arousal. The only thing that will relieve the bristling sensation is Bella. So as soon as she opens her eyes, and he is certain by the frantic look in them that she needs more of him inside her than his hand, he drags his fingers away. _

_Normally, he would take this opportunity to slowly let her down and build her back up slowly. He would extend their time together as long as possible by bringing her close and then making her beg, over and over, until she couldn't take it any more. But although he won't admit it, he knows they cannot stay here forever, and he simply doesn't have the time. _

_So he kneels between her legs and spreads her moisture over himself with his palm, stroking himself into sheer desperation. It delays his entry into her, but it makes her want him as badly as he wants her. She picks her head off the pillow to watch, and her mouth drops open as she forgets to breathe. _

_He growls, "Should I come all over your beautiful breasts? On your belly?"_

_Her eyes close involuntarily as she imagines it, and she bites her bottom lip. It nearly sends him over the edge. "You promised you'd fuck me first," she whispers._

_"Uhh. I did, didn't I?" He sits on his heels, tugs her ass onto his thighs, and flicks the head of his penis against her clitoris until he is calmed down enough to fuck her thoroughly, but she is just on the edge._

_And when she reaches out to grab his forearms, her nails digging exquisitely into him, he groans and gives in. He grabs her by the hips and pulls her onto him._

_She is full with him, stretched to her limit. Nothing else could possibly feel this way. No other man, no other mate, no other love. She squeezes his wrists to hold him still, and he barely manages not to shove her back to pound into her. Since she can't take any thrusting yet, he frees one hand to thumb her clitoris again, and she immediately starts to spasm around him and call out his name. _

_He grins and stares down at her, his eyes glowing in the dim room. His mate is irresistible. He waits until his touch becomes too much for her, and then he returns his hands to her waist and starts moving her against him. He pushes his hips against hers as he pulls her onto him, then pulls her almost off. He repeats the motion again, and again, and again. _

_She cries out and reaches up to brace one arm against the wall above her head and the other at the top of the bed to keep from sliding away from him. The movement pushes her breasts toward him, and he roars a sound of pure lust at the sight. He yanks her waist up higher, tugging her into an undulating arch for each slide onto his length. The angle drives his broad head into her g-spot, and within seconds she is climaxing again. _

_He snarls as he holds her steady, her back several inches off the bed, mindlessly slamming into her as she shakes and cries and comes. _

_And then he is unable to delay his need any longer. He wants to extend his time with her as long as possible, hold them here where there is no one except them and nothing but love and bliss, but he cannot. He slides his hands up between her shoulderblades and yanks her up against him. "You're mine," he growls into her ear, and he shoves her down onto his cock. He holds her still, trying to hang on to the last remnants of his control. He wants her to come just one more time, and he hopes that in their coupling, he finds what he needs. _

_Her orgasms have left her feeling boneless atop him. She feels him pulsing inside her, relishing the sensation of being as close as they can possibly be. "I'm yours," she moans. Her head drops forward onto his shoulder as she feels one of his arms wrap around her waist, holding her immobile on his shaft, his other wrapping around her back and hanging onto her shoulder. _

_And then he lowers his own mouth to the mark on the back of her shoulder. His breath washes over it, and her arousal is renewed. _

_It opens up a new need in her. He senses this, and reaches out his tongue to flick against it. She whimpers and quivers on top of him. He tightens his hold on her waist, but there is no way to pound into her like he really wants to and keep contact with the mark on her skin. _

_"I want... I need..." she pants._

_"I know," he groans._

_She rises up on her knees as best she can, and lowers herself on him once more. He grunts and shudders beneath her, and she wants more. He loosens his grip, helping to lift her up and up, then yanks her back down, and she cries out. He does it again, and again, and soon she is riding him hard, him twisting his hips against her. Heat multiples between them. Sweat slicks against them. He mutters epithets that bounce off the walls. She repeats his name and calls out to God. _

_She opens her eyes and sees a droplet of perspiration roll down his cheek, along the neck, and nestle into the dip above his collarbone, and a flash of memory passes through her mind. She wants to drink it in, drink all of him in, so she laps it up with her tongue. He is salty and delicious, and she needs more of him. And as he feels her tasting his skin, he knows that they are close to finding that which he seeks, here in this place of safe harbor. _

_So as he starts to lose control, as his words turn into unintelligible growls, as his fingers dig so tightly into her skin that she thinks they might meld into her, she begins to suckle at the tender skin atop his trapezius muscle, where his neck meets his shoulder. _

_He can't take it any more. His cock is hard to the point of pain. He slips his hands down to palm her ass, holding her tightly in place, rises up on his knees, and starts to pound into her. His world narrows down to her pussy and her skin. _

_She, in turn, is already lost, overwhelmed by her final climax. The only thing anchoring her to the world is him. Electricity flows over and around her, landing in the twin bite marks on her shoulder and breast. She wants to share the energy with him, and he with her. So when he lowers his lips to the mark on her shoulder, worrying it as he slams into her, she opens her own mouth and closes her teeth on his clavicle. Jacob snarls in ecstatic fulfillment and buries himself into her as far as he can go. Yes. Oh, yes. This. This is what he needs. _

_Bella feels every point of contact between their bodies, and she knows nothing else. Simultaneously, they bite firmly into each other's flesh. He explodes into her at the same moment she enters him, and their bodies complete a sacred circle. Their past and their future unite in this singular moment, and they merge once more._

_Minutes later, she finds herself collapsed on top of him. She isn't certain how or when, but he lowered them to the bed. He groans as she rolls off of him and settles into the crook of his shoulder. _

_He fingers the mark on her breast. "I love it when you mark me," he sighs. _

_"Me too," she answers._

_"I wish it would stay."_

_She picks up her head to look at the outline of her teeth in his skin. It has already healed over, but the line remains. She touches it lightly and he shudders under her fingertips. "Honey, it feels so good."_

_"I know. Mine do too," she answers._

_"Everywhere you touch me feels so..." He struggles to find the right words. He thinks to himself that he is fundamentally changed. That knowing her has shifted something inside him, pushed it into place where it was always meant to be, and it can never go back. That she is now a permanent part of him. _

_She nods. Hers feel the same. "I know," she repeats._

_"I want it to last. I want to carry you with me everywhere I go."_

_And then she remembers that he will disappear, and her face falls. "I don't want you to go." _

_"Me neither. Was that why you tried to stop me earlier?" he asks._

_She shakes her head. "I don't know. Something just doesn't feel right."_

_"I know. I'm sorry I distracted you from wanting to talk. I just needed you."_

_"I needed you too," she admits. "I always need you. How long will you stay?"_

_He reaches up to cup her cheek. "As long as I can."_

_She nuzzles into his palm. "I missed you. I'm going to miss you when you go."_

_"Me too."_

_She can feel tears building up. "Do you have to go?"_

_"I don't want to." He shakes his head and struggles to remember what happens outside this house, outside this room. "But I don't think it's my choice."_

_A single tear falls onto his neck, breaking his heart. "Why? I want you to stay. I want to stay here with you."_

_He crushes her to him. "I do too. I don't ever want to leave you."_

_She starts to sob, her entire form shaking, until she has to pull away to gasp in air. And in so doing, she catches sight of his unremarkable curtains. She sits up suddenly, grabbing at his wrist. "Jacob, do you remember? The window!"_

_He looks up at her, confused. "Yeah?"_

_Everything outside this room is blurry and hazy. But everything that happens here is crystal clear. "I found you. Do you remember? Months ago. You were sleeping in the woods. I found you as your wolf. And again, not long ago." She reaches for the curtains and parts them. _

_And what she sees makes her scream._

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks once again to my wonderful beta, Babs81410. Next update will be Friday.


	38. Chapter 37

A/N: This story has been nominated in the Non-Canon awards in four categories: Best Non-Canon Author, Best Bella/Jacob, Best Lemon, and Best Suspense/Horror. Many thanks to whoever made the nomination. Also, some of you may have missed chapter 36 altogether, as FFN inconsistently sent out the new chapter announcement on Monday. So if this looks confusing, go back and read the previous chapter first.

Warning: Graphic violence continues. Seriously. _Very_ graphic violence.

X-x-x-x-X

June 7

X-x-x-x-X

Bella springs awake, an awful shriek ringing in her ears. When she gasps for air, she realizes that she was the one screaming. Rachel stumbles into the room, hair tangled, makeup free, and wearing her pajamas. Charlie stands in the doorway behind her, frowning but looking less alarmed. It isn't the first time he has been awakened by her nightmares. Bella scrambles to her knees in Jacob's bed and yanks the curtains open, revealing the moonlit backyard and nothing else.

Bella drops the drape and slumps forward, leaning on her hands and knees. Rachel approaches cautiously. "Bella? What was that?"

Charlie clears his throat. "Did you have a nightmare, Bells?"

She shakes her head. "Yes. I mean, no. It was... It was..."

"It was real?" Charlie clarifies.

Bella nods, trying to clear her mind of the awful image, but it is the only thing she can see.

Her father sits on the edge of the bed and moves into her line of sight. "Tell us what you saw," he prompts gently.

Bella's hands move to her neck. She knows now why she has felt a circle of pain choking her for the past several hours. "Razor wire," she whispers.

"Oh, god." Rachel gulps and backs away from the bed.

Billy's voice sounds from the hallway. "What is it? What's going on?" He peers in.

Alarmed, Bella whispers harshly, "Don't tell him!"

Charlie knows as well as Bella that there is no point in giving the lurid details to Jacob's father. He sits up and faces his old friend. "Bella just had a dream. I think she needs a minute to compose herself. Then maybe she can tell us what she knows?" He glances at her, concerned.

"Yeah, okay." But then she catches sight of Billy's terrified expression. "He's still alive," she reassures him.

He sighs in relief. "Oh, thank god. Okay, okay. How about I put on a kettle of tea then, and you can come out to the kitchen when you're ready?"

The room empties, and Bella makes her way to the bathroom and flips on the light. She grips the sink and stares at her reflection and tries to figure out what to say. Certainly she isn't going to disclose her intimate moments with Jacob. But she only got a little glimpse of him, of his corporeal body, before her own shrieks woke her up. She doesn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but she doesn't think she has anything useful to offer. Only horror.

But when she can no longer delay, she makes her way to the kitchen. Coffee is brewing in the pot on the counter, and a kettle of water is on the fire. Rachel turns to her. "It's only, like, four AM. I wasn't sure if we'd want coffee to wake up completely, or chamomile tea to try to go back to sleep."

Bella shakes her head. "There's no way I can go back to sleep now."

"How's your neck?" Charlie asks. Until now, they did not know why Bella felt the sharp circle of pain encircling her, nor why it started to dull, but did not disappear, around midnight.

"Feels the same. Hurts, but not awful. I think I know why." It is a good place to start as any.

"What did you see in your dream?" Rachel asks.

"He's unconscious, I think. Or maybe just asleep. I don't know. When I fell asleep, I was waiting for him. He showed up a bit later, I'm not sure when exactly. In the dream, he was okay. Fine, actually. At first, he didn't look hurt."

"Did he tell you where he is?" Billy wants to know.

"I'm sorry. That's not really how it works. When we're asleep, we can't remember all of this." She gestures around her. "It's really hard to remember anything that happens in real life. When we wake up, we remember the dreams perfectly, but not the other way around. It's really frustrating."

"I guess that makes sense," Charlie muses as Billy slumps dejectedly in his chair. "I mean, you're asleep, right? So it's not like you're thinking straight."

"Right. The dreams are usually located in his bedroom, or sometimes in mine. But if you look out the window, it's different."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asks.

"Out the window, I can see where he really is. Or he can see me. Normally when I look out the window, I just see the backyard. But sometimes it's actually in the middle of the woods. If I go out there, I can actually find him. It's when he's the wolf, actually sleeping in the woods. I've done it a couple times now. And that's how he found me in that vacation house Edward held me in. He got in through my window."

"So the window is a door to the real world?" Rachel's eyes widen.

"Something like that, I guess. So in the dream, I opened the curtain, and I saw him." She sees three sets of hopeful eyes trained on her, and she hates how little she has to offer them. "I only got a glimpse. I don't know much of anything useful."

"Anything is more than we have to go on now!" Charlie insists. "What did you see?"

Bella stares hard at the wood grain of the table. "He's alone, for now. Passed out or asleep, like I said, I'm not sure. He's cuffed to this... this thing. Like a great big metal X in the middle of the room."

"What's the room like? Any windows? Any distinguishing features?" Charlie prompts.

Bella bows her head, trying to shrink into herself. "I didn't see any windows. I was probably situated where the door must have been. It's like a... like a dungeon."

Rachel's eyebrows rise up. "A dungeon? Like, bars on a cell and stone walls and stuff?"

"No, just a brown room with no windows. Does it matter? He's shackled to a metal thing in the middle of an empty room."

"Is he hurt?" Billy asks quietly.

"Nothing more than before, I don't think. Nothing new. All the aches and pains feel, just, less. Probably because he's not awake to notice them."

"That's a blessing, anyway," Billy sighs.

"I'm sorry I don't have more information," Bella apologizes.

"Don't apologize! But maybe you should try to go back to sleep and learn more? Look around?" Billy suggests.

Rachel agrees. "Go through the window if you can."

Charlie frowns. "But what if she gets stuck there?"

"But she's really here. As soon as she wakes up, she's just back here, right?" Rachel argues.

"Maybe," Charlie shakes his head. "But she doesn't remember real life when she's there. How's she even going to think to crawl through?"

"Maybe she will, maybe she won't. But it's the best we've got," Rachel answers.

"I think we should tell the pack first. Then try to go back to sleep," Billy adds.

"I don't think I can sleep," Bella denies.

Rachel insists, "Take a pill, then!"

Charlie shakes his head. "Hold up. Let's tell the pack first."

Billy dials his sister, trying to reach Collin, but learns that he actually left to join the search for Jacob and Jasmine hours ago. Other than Jacob, he has the farthest range for spirit walking. So he left in wolf form to journey to Jacob's last known location, the storage facility, and spirit walk from there. Sam had Alpha ordered Quil back to the reservation in case the vampires appear there, which was actually an excuse to allow his injuries to heal. The rest are combing the area around the storage facility in ever widening circles to try to pick up a trail.

Bella returns to bed dejectedly. Her body throbs in pain wherever Jacob was injured, although the sensation is rather dulled. Between adrenaline, anxiety, pain, and despair, she is unable to return to sleep. But she knows that the only way for her to help Jacob is to return to her dreams to learn more about where he is being held captive.

Inevitably, trying to fall asleep only results in more frustrating insomnia. She rolls over and buries her face in the pillow, gripping it tightly with both hands. But when she shifts her head to the side to take a breath, she opens her eyes only to see Jacob's incorporeal form bending over her.

She reaches out for him involuntarily and cries out his name, stumbling off the bed and into nothing when he isn't actually there to break her fall.

_Bells?_ His voice is faint and hollow, but she can hear him.

"Oh my god, Jake? Is that really you?" She picks herself up and puts her hands out. Her hand looks like it should be touching his chest, but she feels only the slightest increase in the temperature of the air.

_Yeah. It's me. I found you! I really found you! _He, too, reaches for her, the tips of his fingers against her face. She feels a light tingle on her skin.

Bella resists the urge to close her eyes and lean into his hand. "Jake, where are you? Are you spirit walking?"

_Yeah. I was dreaming that wonderful dream with you, but all of a sudden you were gone. I woke up just then. They had left me alone, and I realized that I should try to spirit walk and find help. _

"So where are you? The pack is looking. They tracked you to a storage unit, but by the time they got there, you were gone!"

_They saw my eagle and realized they had been followed. We weren't there very long. Alec incapacitated us again, and then they moved us. I woke up in this, like, kinky torture sex room. _

Bella hears footsteps approaching. No one else had fallen asleep yet either, but they can hear her talking. Charlie and Rachel peer in from either side of the doorway. Rachel looks confused, but her father has already figured out what's going on. "Is he here right now?" Charlie asks.

"You can't see him?" Bella asks.

Rachel frowns. "See who?"

_They can't see me,_ Jacob explains.

Bella points at Jacob, but to Rachel and Charlie it looks like she's pointing at the dresser against the opposite wall. "He's here! Jacob's here! He's spirit walking!"

Billy's voice calls out, "Thank the spirits! Is he okay? Are you okay, son?"

_Tell him I'm fine, Bells. No permanent damage so far._

"He says he's fine! No permanent damage."

Charlie interrupts. "That's great and all, but where is he? If he can tell us, the pack can come get him."

_I'm not exactly sure. When I left my body, I just had this incredible urge to be with you. I was here sort of in a blink of an eye. But I saw the building from above before I ended up here. It's a mansion. Really big. Black roof, white siding. It's on a lot of land, several acres. There's a little pond behind it. I think it's pretty far south of here, but I'm not sure how far. I really don't know where it is._

Bella repeats his description before Charlie asks about Jasmine.

_She's being held in another room rig..._ But before he can finish the sentence, Bella feels a chill across her body, and Jacob is gone. She yells, "Dammit!" and struggles not to burst into tears. "Come back!" she yells. "Jacob!"

Billy visibly slumps down. "He's gone, isn't he?"

Bella crumples to the bed and nods miserably. "They must have woken him up or something. He's gone."

"Well, if he can't come to you," Charlie urges, "You try going to him."

"Yeah," Rachel nods. "We'll tell the pack what you told us. And you go to sleep."

Her father agrees. "And I'll work with what he told us. Big white mansion, south of here, on a lot of land, with a little pond in the back."

"But I can't fall asleep!" Bella protests. "All I can do is think about sleeping, and freak out, and that makes me more awake!"

Billy rolls away. "I've got some allergy pills around here somewhere. Clear up your sinuses and knock you out like a light." He returns a minute later with two little pink pills in his palm. Bella takes them obligingly and returns to Jacob's bed. After half an hour, her exhaustion and the sedative combine to draw her under, and she sleeps.

X-x-x-x-X

Jacob is pulled away from Bella by the sensation of drowning. He opens his eyes only to see gray and nothing else. His head is covered with sopping wet fabric, and he is being doused with frigid water. He gasps for air, but inhales only water. He struggles and tries to shake his head free, but concrete hands hold his head in place, and what little movement he manages only digs the wire further into his neck. Just when he thinks he'll pass out from lack of air, the water stops, and the cloth is removed from his face.

He gulps in air and blinks his vision clear. Caius is standing directly in front of him on a stepstool to raise his height above Jacob's, and he has an empty cooler of water in his hands. "What the fuck have you been doing in here?"

"What?" Jacob blinks at him, trying to appear confused. He doesn't know how Caius would have been able to tell the difference between his spirit walk and his unconsciousness. After all, when he last left the room, he had bashed Jacob's skull so hard against the back of the cross that he was knocked out. His skull still throbs.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Caius roars, and the wet hood descends over his face again. But this time he is prepared. He manages to take in a lungful of air before the water descends on him again. He struggles enough that they cannot tell that he is, in fact, sucking the water into his mouth and drinking it. This is the only fluid intake he has had since he was in the forest.

Soon enough, however, he does feel as if he is drowning. He coughs and chokes and spots of lights flash in his vision, but then the water stops again. The fabric is still pulled tight over his face, but he can get a little bit of air through it. When he realizes he can breathe if he stays calm, he tries to suck as much water from the fabric as he can, and when he hears Caius step up the ladder again, probably with a fresh container of water, he sucks in a huge breath and holds it. This time, although his lungs burn by the time the episode is over, Jacob knows that Caius doesn't actually have enough water in any one jug to actually drown him. The fabric stays on his face, but Caius yells, "Tell me what the fuck you were doing!"

"Being unconscious," Jacob answers, his voice distorted. Then the fabric disappears.

"Then what the hell is that?" Caius glares at him and points at his shoulder.

Jacob honestly doesn't know what he's talking about. "What?"

"That!" Caius spits out, flailing his hand at Jacob's neck, then gesturing wildly at the floor. Jacob looks down in confusion, seeing only the huge puddle of water that has accumulated. And then he breathes in, inhaling the scent of his own seed that had spilled on the floor after his dream with Bella. And then he blushes.

It actually makes Caius laugh. "What, now you're embarrassed?"

Jacob looks down at himself, ears burning. He is naked and trussed up in a BDSM playroom, and only now is he self-conscious. He is fairly certain he was alone during his dream, since when he awoke, there was no one with him. But he has no idea what to tell them.

Caius prompts, "What on earth were you doing in here while we were gone? I mean, that is the real purpose of this room, but it's still rather unexpected!"

Jacob tries to turn the tables on them. He doesn't want them to know about his psychic connection to Bella. He narrows his eyes at Caius. "I should be asking what you perverts did to me! You're the one who knocked me in the head so much I passed out. You were there, you know you did! Between then and now I was unconscious. So you tell me!"

Caius scowls at him in distaste. "Nice try, but I don't think so. I don't buy your little ignorant act."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Jacob yells.

"Then explain to me this. I've cut your skin, sliced you open from stem to stern, and not a scratch is left except where the wire is still embedded in your neck. Yes?"

"Yeah," Jacob admits, still confused as to the direction the conversation has taken.

"Then what on earth is that?" Caius points at his shoulder.

"What's what?"

"That!" Caius gesticulates.

"I can't see, I don't know what you're talking about!"

Caius flashes to the wardrobe and returns with an ornate hand mirror, holding it in front of Jacob's eyes. Jacob gasps. His heart stutters in his chest. Over his clavicle is a moon-shaped scar. It looks old and healed over, but Bella left her mark on him in their dream not long before, and both he and Caius are certain it wasn't there before Caius left. "I didn't think it was possible," he murmurs.

"What's possible?" Caius demands.

Jacob's eyes snap from his reflection onto the angry face of the vampire, who tosses the mirror in the corner, where it shatters. He tells a partial truth as he searches for a plausible explanation. "I didn't think it was possible for my skin to scar. Not from something as simple as a bite, certainly." Then his expression darkens, and he snarls, "Did one of you leeches bite me? Fuck, is that what you did while I was out?"

Caius's eyes blaze as he glares at Alec over Jacob's shoulder. "Did you? Is that what you did? Did you try to turn him while I was hunting?"

Alec sounds horrified. "What? Of course not! His blood smells repulsive, and I knew you were on your way back with food! Why would I do that?"

Caius examines Alec's expression closely before dropping his gaze back to the mark on Jacob's skin. "It isn't his bite. We've been feeding together for centuries, and I know what his bite looks like. That's not the right shape." Then he grabs Jacob's chin in his hand and hisses in his face, "What the hell were you doing in here?"

"Getting bitten and molested, apparently!" Jacob snaps back. "I sure as Hell didn't do that to myself!"

Caius retaliates with a flick of his hand, and Alec tugs the cloth tightly over his head again. They repeat their simulated drowning over and over, but Jacob has nothing else to tell them. In between gasps, he marvels that Bella's mark appeared on him. He marked her in this fashion, of course, and also in a dream, which was remarkable in and of itself. So it should come as no surprise that she can mark him this way as well, except for the fact that his skin does not scar.

When they finally tug the hood off his head again, Jacob spits water from his mouth and says, "Seriously, waterboarding? Ripping a page out of the CIA's manual? If cutting me to ribbons didn't work, why do you think this is going to make me tell you anything? And you know as well as I do that you knocked me out yourself, and I obviously didn't escape while you were gone. So what could I possibly have to say to you?"

Disgusted and exasperated, Caius and Alec finally step away and into a corner behind him. They whisper to each other very quietly, but he is able to catch most of their conversation. Caius accuses Alec of leaving Jacob unguarded and allowing something to happen. Alec insists he had been interrogating Jasmine as instructed, but would have heard anything amiss in this room. He reports hearing some groaning, which he thought was due to Jacob's pain, but nothing else. And Jasmine obeyed Jacob's order perfectly, answering not one of his questions, even the harmless ones. Caius grows increasingly agitated.

He wants to learn how to control the wolves. They mutter to each other about their options, but without knowing if they can harness Jacob's control over Jasmine and the rest of the pack, they have no idea of their own strength. More than once, Caius considers beating Jacob again, but Alec reminds him that it gained them nothing before. But threatening Jasmine, on the other hand, produced results.

Alec disappears to retrieve her.

She looks even more disheveled than she did when he last saw her. Her hair is a tangled mess and her dress is filthy and torn. But rather than being nearly mummified in chains, she shuffles in with her ankles and wrists shackled together. Her eyes are bloodshot, and she has obviously been crying.

He asks her, "Are you okay?"

She nods, free to answer his questions even if she is unable to speak to Alec and Caius. At first, she doesn't notice the mark. The razor wire wrapped around his neck is much more striking than a healed-looking scar. The waterboarding had washed away much of the dried blood that had streaked his chest, but each small cut oozes a continuous, slow stream of bright red blood that trickles down his torso. Were it not for his incredible ability to heal, he would already be dead. But even his body is unable to close these wounds when the razors are still embedded in his flesh, and eventually, he will succumb to blood loss if they do not remove the wire.

She tries to move forward, but Alec keeps a tight hold on her. She is able to mouth, "Are you all right?" at him as new tears well up.

He gently reassures her as best he can. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

"You don't look okay!" Caius laughs. "You look half dead."

Her eyes widen as she moves in front of him and spots Bella's mark on his skin. It is stained with his blood, but still visible. She is as shocked as the vampires at its appearance, but she says nothing.

But Caius notes her expression. "So. That means something to you, mmm?"

She frowns. She has heard of marking a mate, but knows almost nothing about it, nor does she know that Jacob marked Bella in a dream, even though she knows they share them. And at any rate, she can't answer due to Jacob's Alpha order. Caius pushes, "Tell me what that is."

She just blinks at him.

Alec interrupts. "I think she really can't. She can't go against his injunction. She wouldn't even answer obvious questions. I asked her if she was a girl, she couldn't answer that. I asked her if she has nine fingers or ten, she didn't answer that either. She hasn't been able to answer anything since he ordered her not to."

Caius murmurs jealously, "What power you wield over your subjects. Incredible." He then begins to circle Jasmine. After one revolution, he stops behind her and touches one index finger to her shoulder, very lightly. But then he tugs the ripped collar of her dress aside, baring her shoulder. Jasmine cringes away from him, but he just moves with her. "And this subject is so... appealing. Will she do anything you tell her to?"

"That isn't how it works," Jacob lies, desperately trying to prevent whatever horrors Caius has in store for Jasmine.

Caius shakes his head. "Oh. But I think it is. Think of what fun you could have with such a power!" He sweeps his hand out, indicating the room at large. "It makes a place like this entirely superfluous, doesn't it? Who needs restraints when you can just tell her to do what you want?"

Caius flicks two fingers toward Jacob as a signal to Alec, and the smaller vampire grabs the cat o' nine tails from the wardrobe and stands right in front of Jacob, ready to lash his chest. Caius presses himself against Jasmine's back, and she trembles with rage. She nearly phases right there, but he chides, "No, no, no, my dear. You'll stay just like this unless you want him beaten further. But I would like some answers out of you." Jasmine just snarls in response.

But then Caius moves his hand to her waist and tortuously slowly slinks it up and around to cup her breast. He glances at Jacob. "Have you ever partaken of this lovely specimen? Ever told her to get down on her hands and knees before you like the dog she really is?"

"Fuck you! Get your hands off her!"

Caius squeezes her breast so hard she cries out in pain. "Two choices, then. If she insists on silence, I'll bend her over that chair and take her in front of you, and then young Alec can have a turn. Or she can answer my questions."

"Go to Hell!" Jacob screams. But he spots the horrified expression in Jasmine's eyes, and his face falls.

Caius sees his defeat. "Lift it. Lift your injunction!"

Jacob whispers, "You can speak, Jasmine."

"Get off me!" She bats away Caius's hand and rushes forward to Jacob, but Caius yanks her back before she can touch him. She immediately accuses them of causing the scar on Jacob's shoulder. "Did you do that to him?"

Caius rolls his eyes and lets her go. "Do you think he'd still be alive if we had? You tell us? What is that?"

"I don't know," she answers honestly. "It looks like a bite mark."

"I can see that," Caius answers irritably. "I want to know how it got there!"

"I've been in the other room! How should I know?"

"There are only four of us here," Caius says slowly and angrily. "And only three of you were in this building when it happened. Alec says he was with you the entire time, and I know that's not his bite. And surely he didn't do it to himself. So what the hell is it?"

Jasmine isn't sure if she is supposed vouch for Alec, but he was with her until Caius returned. "He was. I was with him, he was with me, until you came to get him. So as far as I know, one of you just did that to him just now!"

Caius grows tired of her answer. He grabs the whip out of the wardrobe and yanks her by her hair, forcing her to her knees. He strikes her brutally across the back, and she screams in pain as Jacob yells at him to stop. "Tell me what that is!"

"I don't know!" she wails.

"Tell me!" Caius rages at Jacob.

"She doesn't know! I don't know!" he screams back. Caius lashes her again, and Jacob yells, "I've already asked her to answer, don't you remember? She has to obey me. She really doesn't know, and neither do I!"

Alec jumps in. "Maybe she doesn't know, but she has plenty of other answers."

Caius steps away from her and runs a hand through his hair, trying to calm himself. "Of course. You're right." He kneels in front of Jasmine, on her hands and knees on the floor. "Tell me about the rest of you. I know that he has an array of abilities. Do the rest of you?"

Jasmine opens her mouth to say yes, but instead, only a grunt comes out. She realizes suddenly that although Jacob lifted her order of silence, he did not lift his order that prohibited her from answering their questions. Her mouth gapes open, and as the seconds pass by, Caius becomes more suspicious. He raises the whip above her head before she decides to try something else. She can't give away vital information, but can she lie? "No," she whispers. Emboldened, she continues feeding him untruths. "He's the only one."

"So he is the shaman!" Caius crows triumphantly. "Where are the rest of them?"

"I don't know." This is a truth that she can speak. She can't give him information she doesn't possess. "I'm in here with you!"

"Do they live in the forest where you ambushed us?"

"Yes." The lie falls easily from her lips.

"And all of you have to obey him? Do everything he says?"

She isn't sure how to answer this question. They have to obey his Alpha orders, but Jacob normally makes requests instead of issuing those. She tries to say no, but "Yes" comes out of her mouth.

"So if he told you kill yourself, you would?"

Jasmine just stares at him, wide-eyed. Caius doesn't care at her lack of response. He is learning what he wants to know already. "And if he commanded you to fight for me, you would?"

Again, she remains silent. Caius just smirks at her. A plan develops in his mind.

Alec interrupts. Caius's plans of ruling the vampire world without Aro mean little to him. He is here for revenge for Jane. "What did you do to my sister?"

Jasmine wants to deny that they touched her, but Jacob's injunction keeps her from answering this truthfully. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.

Alec screams, "What did you do to her, you bitch?"

And at her silence, he snaps. He flies at her, nails and fangs bared. He lands on her, toppling her backward, and scratches wildly at her arms and face. She shrieks and tries to shove him off, but he is tenacious.

Behind him, Jacob yells, "Get off her! Don't touch her! Jasmine, answer his question! The truth now, the truth!"

"I don't know what happened to her!" she yells. "None of us do! When she left, she was fine!"

Alec grabs the chain between her shackles and uses it to pin her arms down with one hand while he lands punch after punch to her face.

Jacob frantically tries to stop it. "She's telling the truth! Stop hurting her! I ordered her to tell the truth! We don't know what happened to them!"

Caius places a hand on Alec's shoulder, and the blows stop. Alec falls heavily off of Jasmine. She rolls to the side, at the base of the wardrobe, and spits blood from her mouth and wheezes, "We don't know. We really don't know what happened to them."

Caius says quietly, "They could still be lying. I don't know how we could possibly tell, although he did just order her to tell the truth. But I think I have a lie detector test on hand." Alec looks up at him and catches his smirk, and they grin at one another. Caius nods toward the door. "Bring it in."

Alec runs out of the room. Caius removes his cloak and hangs it on the wardrobe's open door. Jasmine hears the muffled sound of a jingle from a hidden pocket at the movement. She exchanges a quick glance with Jacob while Caius's back is turned.

A minute later, Alec returns dragging two people behind him. A woman and a man, both middle aged and wearing matching wedding bands, blink in confusion at the suffocating smoke surrounding them.

"Ah, you brought our dinner." He turns back to Jacob. "Now. These two humans are already dead. You know this. They aren't walking out of here. But their end? Well, that's up to you. You can tell us what we want to know willingly, and they will die painless deaths. Alec can leave his mist surrounding them, and they will just slip away. But if you don't tell us what we want to know, well. I think you know what will happen then."

Jacob pulls uselessly against his shackles. "Leech, were you not listening? We can't tell you what we don't know! If we killed them, we'd happily take credit for it! I'll tell you about every single bloodsucker I've ever killed right now. But we didn't touch them!"

Caius feigns disappointment. "Ah, such a shame. So stubborn." He shakes his head. "It's too bad. For them, at least. I rather like my meals to have a little bit of fight in them!"

And Alec pulls away the mist.

As they regain awareness, the couple begins to cringe in fear. The man asks in a quavering voice, "What the hell is going on here?"

The woman catches sight of Jasmine first. "Oh my god. Oh my god. What have you done to that poor girl?" Then she sees Jacob strung up, naked, and bleeding, and she screams.

"Ah, the mouthwatering smell of fear!" Caius leans over the woman.

The man starts to blubber, "What do you want? What do you want? We've got money. Take it all! We have more, you can clean out our bank accounts!"

Caius laughs delightedly. "And the begging! My second favorite sound in the world, second to the screaming!"

"Caius, let them go!" Jacob yells. "We don't know anything! We would tell you if we did!"

The woman stares at Alec. "Shit. You're just a kid!" She actually glares at Caius. "Let him go! Let the child go! What do you need him for?"

Alec grins ferally at her. "I'm no child, my dear, and I don't need your protection."

Caius grabs the woman by her hair and lifts her off her feet. She struggles and twists in the air, and Alec grabs her wrist. "Let me go! Let me go!"

Jacob screams at them to free her, while her husband scoots back toward the door.

"Last chance," Caius taunts Jacob. "Tell me now, or you will see the effect of my venom!" And he bares his glistening teeth.

"Fuck you, you bloodsucking monster! I don't know anything! I don't know!"

And the woman screams as Alec buries his teeth in the woman's wrist. The husband yells and flings himself around Alec's legs, only managing to injure his own shoulder in the process. Caius cackles and bares the woman's neck and sinks in his fangs, and the woman thrashes and shrieks. Jacob's shouts add to the din.

And Jasmine sees her chance. Neither Alec nor Caius is facing toward her. She rises silently to her feet and slides her hand out to Caius's cloak, reaching for his keys. But the chain binding her wrists to her ankles prevents her movement. She grits her teeth and tries to squeeze her hand as small as possible, yanking at it and trying to free it. Her wrists are small compared to the cuffs, but she still cannot slip out. Finally she takes a deep breath and with a painful pop, dislocates her left thumb. Her hand slides through.

Immediately, she reaches for the cloak, searching for his keys. She realizes her dislocated thumb is useless and shoves it back into place with a wince, then reaches back into the cloak. Jacob sees her out of the corner of his eye and raises his shouts to screams to give her cover. She closes her hands around the small piece of metal and grins in victory.

Just then, the dying woman yells, "Aaron, run! Go!"

He yanks at Alec in futility and cries, "No, I'm not leaving you behind!"

Jasmine pulls her chains taut to keep them from clinking together and slowly makes her way across the room. Her first instinct is not to free herself, nor even the human man and woman, but Jacob.

Irritated, Alec kicks Aaron away, and the man lands by the wardrobe. Seeing his chance, he grabs the deadliest looking weapon he finds, the mace. He doesn't hesitate. He rushes at Caius.

But Caius, of course, is much faster than than the human. Caius drops the writhing woman to the floor before Aaron gets close enough. And when Aaron swings the mace at his face, he deftly catches the chain mid-swing and yanks it out of the man's hands. Aaron's jaw drops open in surprise, and he catches sight of the door. He sprints for it and makes it into the hallway before Caius laughs wickedly and follows him out. Alec remains in the room with the dying woman, her weeping filling the air, her blood running freely down her neck and hand. His back faces Jacob and Jasmine. He bends over her, yanking down her pants to access her femoral artery at the top of her thigh, and sinks his teeth back in.

The distraction is tragic but perfect. Alec hardly notices anything in his feeding frenzy, and Caius isn't even in the room. They hear the screams of his victim somewhere down the hallway, and Caius's dark laughter.

So Jasmine reaches Jacob, her progress across the room extremely slow to ensure she stays out of sight of both vampires and remain silent in her movement, no small feat considering the chains draped in front of her. There are seven keys on the ring, and it takes her three tries to figure out which one opens this lock. Silently, she opens the manacle restraining Jacob's right wrist. He mouths silently to her that she should finish freeing herself, but she shakes her head. She hardly cares what happens to her, so long as he can get free. Not only does she know that it is her fault they were captured, but his pain hurts her more than her own.

Seeing that she won't obey him without an Alpha order, he switches to trying to remove the razor wire from his neck while she goes for his other wrist. The edges bite into his fingertips, but he manages to unwind the excruciating choker.

But then their luck runs out. Jasmine's chains clink as she stretches for his left wrist, and Alec lifts his head from his meal just as she is inserting the key.

"Watch out!" Jacob whispers, not wanting to alert Caius as well.

Jasmine spins around, and the keyring falls to the floor before the tumblers fall into place. Jacob struggles to try to reach it as Jasmine phases on the spot, but his left arm bound to the cross makes it impossible. Her small stature saves her from being crippled as she transforms. Her cuffs do not budge and bite deeply into her flesh, but not deeply enough to sever through muscle or tendon. She flings herself on Alec in a rage before he manages to throw up his hands, and her powerful jaws lock on his screaming head, ripping it free from his torso, as a cacophony of voices fills her mind. All of her brothers yell at once, and she is unable to distinguish them from one another, as they encourage her, beg for information, panic about the sight they see through her eyes, and ask her where she is. She has no answers.

Caius appears in the room only a moment later. The first thing he sees is Jacob, one arm free, rather than Jasmine bent over Alec in the corner. He flashes to Jacob in a rage and grabs his free arm, shoving it back against the beam.

He yells, "What the hell is going on in here?"

But before he realizes what has gone on behind him, Jacob screams a command. "Run! Crush the head and run! Get out of here!"

Jasmine despises the Alpha order. She wants to stay here and fight for him. But they all know that she isn't a match for Caius even with full range of movement. So she obeys, the rest of the pack wishing her speed in her mind. She gallops away as best she can, but the chains bind her. She tries to snap them apart, but doesn't possess the strength. But Alec's disembodied head is no match for her teeth. She crunches the vile, stony flesh as she flees through the hallway and around a corner. Sharp chunks fall from her mouth and scatter along the rug. Her own blood runs down her paws where the alloy bites into her flesh. She expects to hear heavy footsteps behind her at any second, but agonizing moments pass, and all she hears behind her are yelled epithets and blows. Just as she sees a crystal chandelier and a broken, lifeless body on the broad staircase before her, she hears it.

Jacob is screaming behind her. It is pure agony. She wills herself to turn around, to aid him. Her brothers beg her to turn. But she has to obey his command. Her paws stumble down the stairs, every step causing jolting pain in her dislocated thumb or in the slices the metal makes in her skin. Behind her, Caius curses, and then she hears a sickening crack, and Jacob's scream becomes an excruciating howl. And as the last tiny fragments of Alec's skull fall from her lips and she crashes through the heavy oak front door, the very worst sound of all. Silence.

Tears stream out of Jasmine's eyes as she trips away from the house. She doesn't look back. She makes it halfway to the trees before she hears Caius behind her. She yanks as hard as she can, but her bones will give way before the chains will. She hears the panicked voices of her brothers and sister in her mind, some screaming at her to run faster, others begging for information about Jacob.

Sam's voice finally silences the rest. _Enough! Jasmine, turn to look. Just long enough to see where he is._

Without stopping, she turns her head, and to her horror, sees that he is gaining on her. He is nearly upon her. Sam asks, _Can you outrun him?_

_No. These chains..._

_Then fight! Turn and fight! Kill him like you killed Alec! _And she does. This is exactly what she wants to do, but the fact that Sam's Beta order is able to override Jacob's Alpha command terrorizes her. But she obeys.

She whirls and leaps, and Caius meets her midair. Her bulk forces him back, and she lands on top of him. But the fall is meaningless to him. She snaps at him with her jaws, trying to get them around his head, but he reaches up and catches hold of her snout with his right hand and her chin with his left. He tries to pry them apart, and barely manages to keep her from biting his face off. She uses her only free paw to swipe at him, tearing out a chunk of his shoulder.

But he uses her chains to his advantage. He catches the metal linking her ankles together with his foot and shoves, and she loses her balance over him. As she begins to tip over, he grabs the freely hanging manacle and yanks, tripping her entirely. She lands on her side, and he is above her in an instant.

She hears her brothers begging her to rise, and she flings him away with her free paw. It only slows him down long enough for her to struggle to her feet. But she doesn't have time to plant them before he springs at her again. She bares her teeth just in time, catching his forearm with her canines. She snaps her jaw shut, but comes away with only a ribbon of his flesh, and he rolls away from her. By the time she turns to face him again, he is gone.

Seth yells a warning. _Above you! _

She steps to the side, but not quickly enough to avoid Caius. He lands perpendicularly across her back. Her quick movement is the only thing that prevents him from landing astride her and grabbing her head to snap her neck. From this position, it is all he can do to hang onto her as she runs forward and thrashes, trying to dislodge him. But he keeps a firm grip on the fur of her left flank with his left hand and manages to get his right around her throat.

She bucks and twists, but she can't breathe, and he will not let go. Her lungs burn for air and her vision grows dim. After a few more steps, she can run no more. She sees flashing lights in her eyes as her brain uses the last of the oxygen in her system, and she collapses to the ground.

She hardly feels the pain when Caius begins to pummel her ribs, back, and finally her skull. She blinks in and out of consciousness and isn't certain which of the voices in her mind are her dead grandparents calling her home, her brothers willing her to rise, and Caius's angry rant. She feels herself being dragged across the lawn and back into the house. Her boneless limbs refuse to budge when he pulls her up the stairs, nor when he pulls her down the hallway.

She isn't certain if it is a nightmare or a living Hell when she feels herself stop moving and opens her eyes. She is back in the torture chamber, sprawled out across the floor at the foot of her Alpha and imprint.

She hardly notices that Jacob is still restrained to the St. Andrew's Cross. She doesn't register that his right wrist is now purple from a fracture where it is cuffed to the metal. She doesn't realize that his head lolls forward, and his eyes are closed. All she can see is his chest ripped apart, his ribs broken, the cartilage along the left side of his sternum separated to expose Jacob's heart.

And she finally understands what Caius has been trying to tell her. "Do you see? Do you see what I've done to your precious shaman? Did you hear him scream when I tore him open and crushed his heart with my fist? Could you feel it when he died? Now, what do you think I will do with you?"

He keeps talking, but she stops listening to him. All she hears are her sister's and brothers' agonized howls in her mind.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Next update will be on Monday.


	39. Chapter 38

X-x-x-x-X

June 7

X-x-x-x-X

_The fog in front of Bella's face is impenetrable. She has never seen it so thick. All she sees in every direction is gray. It moves, it shifts, it descends on her. She turns her head to the left, and she sees only darkness and mist. She turns her head to the right. The same. She spins slowly, and when she stops, she has no idea if she has turned one, two, or three rotations. _

_A cold wind tangles her hair around her head, and she pulls it back with one hand. She blinks and huffs out a great sigh, and is surprised to see that this clears a few inches of the fog away from her face. Startled, she blows a small stream of air in front of her, and it happens again. The mists part, just for a second. Encouraged, she takes in a deep breath and blows hard, and this time she can see a few yards. She steps forward until the mist closes around her once more, and then she takes another deep breath and blows. She walks. _

_Ahead of her, she hears an eagle's cry. _

_"Hello?" she yells and turns toward it. She knows that sound. The bird is no stranger. "Hello?"_

_The eagle responds with another cry._

_"Where are you? I need to find you. I'm lost, can you help me?"_

_It calls again, and she starts to walk._

_"Please. I can't see my way. I don't know if I'm going in circles."_

_And another cry._

_Bella starts to jog toward the sound. "Thank you!" _

_Ahead of her, she hears the flapping of wings. "Don't leave me behind, please!" The exhalation of words clears a few feet of the path before her, and she thinks she sees a shadow in the air._

_The eagle cries again, and Bella runs._

_She runs until her legs burn and her lungs ache for air. But just when she thinks she might collapse, she sees a large shape taking form in the mist. The flapping of wings stops. She slows to a walk, and then to a standstill. She takes a huge breath and blows the mist away, and she sees the little red house in front of her. _

_But for once, she is afraid as she approaches. No light welcomes her. No warmth invites her. The windows are dark and the shades drawn. No sounds issue forth. It is empty, and she doesn't know if it will ever be full again._

_Then she catches sight of the eagle perched on the chimney, and she is reassured. She opens the door. She tries to switch on the light in the living room, but nothing happens. The darkness is oppressive. She moves to the hallway. It is the same. But she doesn't need light to know where Jacob's room is. She feels her way to his door, and her heart falls when she realize the knob is cold. She knew he wasn't here, but had hoped anyway. Still, she turns the knob. And again the light does not glow when she flips the light switch._

_She bumps into the bed and crawls on top to reach the curtains. She can't quite remember why, but she knows that is what she came here to do. But she wants to cry when the only thing on the other side of the glass is swirling gray fog. _

_But then she hears the flutter of wings, and she sees the shadow of the eagle landing on the ground beneath the window. She can't see the animal itself. There is no light anywhere. Instinctively she slides the window open and steps back, and she hears it land on the sill. _

_It ruffles its feathers, and she says, feeling a little foolish, "Um, I'm going to find a light."_

_She makes her way to the hallway closet, where she knows there are candles and matches. She blindly fumbles, knocking over some unknown objects and sliding others out of the way until she lands on a cylinder of wax with a book of matches perched conveniently on top. She shoves the candle under her arm and opens the book, discouraged to feel only three inside. She strikes the first, illuminating the inside of the closet._

_And a floorboard squeaks behind her._

_She drops the candle in surprise and spins around, the movement extinguishing the small flame. She curses and hastily lights another match, but when she looks down the hallway, sees nothing. She retrieves the candle, which rolled a few feet away, but by the time she picks it up, the match burns her fingertips and she drops it, and it goes out._

_She hears chuckling in the darkness, but somehow, the sound makes her comforted rather than more afraid. She carefully lights the last match and holds it to the wick before she makes any more movement, and then she walks forward._

_But the hallway is empty, and a quick check of Jacob's room reveals that it is as well. The eagle is gone, but the window is closed and the curtains once again drawn. It could not have flown out the opening and then closed it behind itself. Perplexed, she turns toward the small living room._

_And in the shadows, she sees a figure of imposing stature leaning against the mantle of the fireplace. _

_"Jacob?" she asks hopefully. _

_"I am sorry, but no." The answer is heavily accented and is the one she expected. Were this Jacob, he would not be across the room, but in her arms. She holds the candle aloft, and the circle of light illuminates him. _

_And she sees why she mistook him for Jacob. They could be brothers. They share the same physique, high cheekbones, nose, and strong jaw. His eyes are the same shade of almost-black, his skin the same red-brown. But his lips are not quite so full, and his eyes a little rounder. He, too, is beautiful. But she could not begin to guess at this man's age. His hair is long and pin straight, and it gleams in the candlelight. He wears a somber expression, although it changes slightly when she steps forward and realizes that that is all he wears._

_With laughter in his eyes, he states dryly, "I am unable to strap clothing to my ankle, and in my time we did not think to bother with such trivial things anyway."_

_She finally recovers her voice. "Your time?" And then, more astutely, "But hasn't all time become your time?"_

_He smiles, "You're quite perceptive, aren't you? One of the reasons you make a worthy mate for one of my most powerful sons."_

_Bella furrows her brow, struggling to remember. "Where is he? Why isn't he here?"_

_His face falls. "You know. You have to try to remember."_

_She shakes her head. "I can't. I can't remember."_

_"You must. If you do not, you will not be able to find him."_

_"Isn't that why you're here?"_

_"I am here to show you how. Tell me, daughter, what do you remember?"_

_Immediately, she answers, "Jacob. There's something wrong with Jacob."_

_When she doesn't continue, he prompts, "And what is wrong with Jacob?"_

_She looks around the dark room. "He isn't here. He should be here." She struggles to retain her composure. She is terrified. She doesn't want to remember. It will hurt too much._

_Although she didn't say it out loud, he insists, "But you have to remember. It is the only way. It will be easier to start with what happens here. What happened the last time you were here?"_

_"I was... I was waiting for him here. He came to me."_

_"And then?"_

_She blushes, staring at a point above his shoulder. Does he really need an answer? She doesn't look back at him and stammers, "Well, we, um..."_

_"You mated," he says smoothly. "But what else? Did something else happen? It's very important."_

_"Afterward, I looked out the window. And I saw him," she whispers, recalling a horrific scene that will haunt her nightmares forever. "And then I... then I..." She actually doesn't know what happened after that. It is the last thing that she remembers clearly. _

_"You woke up," he explains. He frowns and purses his lips. He wants to know what she saw, but he needs to know something else first. "But before that. Was there anything else? Before you saw him?"_

_She is perplexed, not knowing how to respond, so he steps toward her and behind her. She turns to face him, but he puts his hands on her shoulders to keep her still and brushes her hair over her shoulder, pulling her collar aside. He gently fingers the mark on her shoulder, and warmth spreads through her body. _

_"Oh," she sighs in a small voice. "I marked him."_

_He heaves a sigh of relief. "Good. That's very good."_

_"It is?" _

_He returns to the darkened side of the room and faces her. "Now, then. Tell me exactly what you saw."_

_She proceeds to describe the room in which Jacob was held, his restraints, even the razor wire around his neck, and his expression hardens. He swallows thickly, and she sees a mixture of anger, frustration, and despair across his face. It matches the expressions that have crossed Billy's face._

_And that thought triggers her memory. Billy. His father. This is his home, yet it is not. "Where is Billy?" she asks._

_He looks surprised. "You remember? Good. That's very good. You tell me. Where is Billy?"_

_And she starts to understand. "Billy doesn't join us here, does he?"_

_"He does not."_

_"This is just our place. Mine and Jacob's. But when we're awake, this is his home."_

_"That's right." _

_"I need to remember what happens when I'm awake, don't I?"_

_He nods. "So tell me. What do you remember?"_

_She sits down on the couch as the weight of her memory crashes down upon her. "He's gone. He went to fight the Cold Ones, and they took him. That's where he was when I saw him through the window. Oh my god, that was real!"_

_"That is why you must remember. You must find him!"_

_Her eyes grow wide. "Me? How? How am I supposed to find him?"_

_"Have you not found him before?"_

_"Well, I guess so. But all I have to do is pull back the curtain, and he's there. When I did it just now, there was nothing!"_

_"That is because you need to find him in the waking world. Not this one. That is where he needs you."_

_"Can't you find him?"_

_Now he looks stern. "If I could, do you think we would both be here? I followed, and I returned for his pack as quickly as I could. But by the time we returned, they had moved him again. I lost the trail. There was no trail! These machines mask sight and scent with grating, grinding noises and bitter smells. And the little one, the Cold One of great power. The spell he used to deprive Jacob of all his senses has disrupted his connection with me. I cannot find him! I cannot find my son!" He kneels at her feet and grips her free hand. "But you! You have always been able to find him, and you must do so again!"_

_Bella despairs. If the legendary spirit chief cannot find Jacob, what good is she? "But how?" she pleads._

_"You need to remember. I don't know how much time we have here. You have to think. When you open the window, and he is not there, how do you find him?"_

_She thinks back to the last time she needed to find him that way. He was in the forest, sleeping on the ground in his wolf's body. She had climbed out the window and followed a trail. But there were no pawprints to see, no sound of his voice or his howl. "His heat. I followed his heat."_

_He smiles. "Yes. So you do remember."_

_"But I've never done anything like that when I was awake," she protests. "I haven't felt his heat on my skin since he left to fight the Cold Ones."_

_"Not with your body. You need to feel with your spirit."_

_She gawks at him. "I need to spirit walk? I can't!"_

_Now he smiles at her. "Daughter, how many times have you found him in your dreams? How many times have you come here, to the spirit plane, to find him? Dozens of times? Hundreds? Of course you can. He has been a part of you since you were both children. You spirit walked to him in your sleep when your heart realized that it belonged to him, long before you admitted it to yourself." He leans forward to press his hand to the center of her chest, directly over her heart. "This is his. His is yours. They are the same." He places his other hand over the mark on her breast. "He has marked you, and you him. You completed the circle when you marked him as well. Of course you can find him!"_

_"I can, can't I?"_

_He picks up her hand and brings it to his lips, kissing it gently. "You must. You must help me find my son before it is too late."_

_"I have to," she whispers. "I will."_

But before he can tell her anything else, before he can teach her what she needs to know, she is ripped out of her sleep by excruciating pain. It lances through her right wrist, and before she can even register what is happening, she feels sharp blows against both cheeks. She cries out and shoots up in Jacob's bed, curling down over her bent knees. Rachel rushes into the room just as a slicing pain, worse than fire, tears down her torso from the base of her neck down her sternum, and she falls back against the mattress, helpless against the agony. She screams and clutches at her chest as the sensation of her ribs and breastbone breaking out of her body stuns her. And then her heart is gripped in the tightest of all vices, and time stops. Bella's back arches off the bed, every muscle in her body contracted at once, as Jacob's heart stops.

She falls back on the bed, eyes open and mouth wide in a silent scream.

"Bella?" Rachel throws herself on the bed and pulls Bella close, tears streaming down her face. "Bella? Oh god!"

Billy gets jammed in the doorway. "What's going on? Rachel? Bella? Is Bella okay?"

Rachel clings to Bella's unmoving body, screaming into her ear. "Bella? Bella?" But she gets no response. Rachel begins to shake her. "Talk to me! Bella, what's going on? God damn it, Bella!"

But Bella's eyes are fixed and focused on nothing. Her chest is full with a lungful of air, frozen in place. She doesn't move, doesn't breathe, doesn't speak.

Billy begs, "What's going on? What's going on?"

But his daughter just sobs, yanking Bella into her lap and rocking gently.

"Tell me! Is she alive? Is he alive? What happened to my son?"

Rachel presses her fingers to Bella's neck, but she can't find a pulse.

Quil appears in the hallway, one arm casted, the other in a sling. He tears the sling off and yanks Billy free of the doorjamb. "Bella? Rach? What's going on?"

"I don't know!" Rachel cries. "She was sleeping in here, but she just started to scream, and now, nothing!"

Quil rushes to her side and kneels on the bed, pressing his ear to her chest. "No, it's okay. It's okay! I couldn't hear a pulse, but now I do. It's faint, but it's there. She's not dead!"

Billy is weeping in his chair. "What about Jacob? What about Jacob?"

"I don't know," Quil shakes his head. "Let me go find out."

He starts to leave, but Rachel calls out, "What about your arm? You're not supposed to phase!"

"Fuck my arm!" Quil yells back as he runs out the door. He barely gets to the tree line before he rips off his pants and phases.

He is gone for a few minutes, or perhaps less than that, but it feels like hours. Bella doesn't move, and Rachel holds her tight, rocking her slowly and sniffling. Billy sits hunched over himself in his chair, tears running down his cheeks. He is convinced he will never see his son alive again.

But without warning, Bella takes a gasping breath and sits up abruptly, almost smashing her head into Rachel's.

Billy and Rachel start talking over each other immediately, thanking the spirits for her life and begging to know what happened. The back door slams open but closes quietly, and Bella speaks just as Quil returns to the room. His skin is a dusky shade of gray.

"His heart is my heart," she says.

Quil just looks at her, despair written plainly on his face.

Bella asks, "What did they do to him?"

Quil looks between each member of the family warily. He can't bear to tell them, but they need to know. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't..." He shakes his head and leans against the wall for support. "He's... He's..." Tears begin to roll down his cheeks as he thinks of his cousin, his best friend, torn apart. "I'm sorry." His voice is so low they can barely hear him. "He's dead."

Billy gasps, and Rachel chokes out a cry.

But Bella jumps to her feet, fists clenched at her sides. She spits at Quil, "No. He's not. He's alive."

He shakes his head and says, "I'm sorry, Bella. But he's gone. Caius ripped open his chest and crushed his heart. He's gone."

"He isn't!" she hisses. She brings her fists to her chest. "He isn't! My heart is his heart, and my heart still beats! He's alive!"

"I don't see how," Quil denies. "I saw it. I saw him through Jasmine's eyes."

"Then look again!" Now she is almost yelling. "Taha Aki came to me! He came to me when I slept, and he told me that our hearts are the same. He told me I have to find Jacob. And I will! I'm going to find him. Look!" she leans back over the bed and opens the window, and to their shock, the eagle flies from the nearest tree and lands on the sill.

Bella stands up, and the eagle alights on her outstretched arm. She speaks to the taxilit. "He's alive, isn't he? You told me that my heart is his heart, and mine still beats. So he still lives."

The eagle reaches out one talon and tugs at her sleeve, exposing the mark where her neck meets her shoulder. It glows with red light. The eagle inclines its head a single time.

"Then I'm going to find him."

X-x-x-x-X

Jasmine only realizes she has phased back to human when she no longer hears the pack inside her head. She sees Caius approach and begins to scramble backward, but he pushes her down with one boot. But all he does is grab her wrist and close it back in its manacle. Then he loops a new chain around the one binding her, wraps it around the metal frame in the corner, and locks it shut. He turns his back on her and vanishes from the room.

Jasmine weeps. She is overwhelmed by pain, and she cannot differentiate if it is psychological, physical, or both. She cares not for her own nakedness, her broken bones, nor her fate. Her imprint, her Alpha, her friend is gone, and there is no reason for her to go on. There is no future to look forward to, the present contains only despair, and the past no longer holds any meaning.

She sobs and thinks that no amount of tears can express his loss from the world. She cries brokenly, not caring whether it brings his murderer satisfaction or irritation. She doesn't care if her pack ever finds her. It doesn't matter if she ever leaves this room again. What is left of him is here, and here she will stay. After all, it is her fault he is dead.

But eventually her wail has to give way for breath. Her body has some base instinct to survive even if her heart and mind do not, so for a second there is near-silence in the room as she takes a shuddering breath.

And in that second, she hears it.

The sound is faint, but it is there. She picks her head off the floor and wipes the tears from her eyes so that she can see. What is it?

She crawls to Jacob, but the chain pulls her back. She strains toward him in frustration. She is within a foot of him, but she can't see what she needs to see. Blood still streams from the gaping wound in his chest. But the longer she stares, she realizes that it is not a slow trickle. There is a pulse to the blood oozing from his torso.

She yanks at her chains, but they won't budge. So she simply returns to the large frame and picks it up. It is a feat that she could never have achieved as a human. And although she might be the smallest, weakest shifter, she still possesses impressive strength. She takes a step back and gently settles it down again. Hopefully the movement of these few inches will not alert Caius to what she has done. She returns to him, and her own heart nearly stops when she peers into his chest cavity.

Jacob's heart is twitching rhythmically. It can't be called a heartbeat, not exactly, but neither is it true death. What is going on? Before her eyes, his mangled organ is stretching open and trying to function. Jasmine looks into Jacob's face and sees nothing. There is no fluttering of his eyes behind their lids. His lips and fingers are a dusky blue. She examines his maimed chest, but his lungs do not rise or fall.

But his body is trying to heal. When she realizes what is happening, she reaches out a shaking hand and pushes his sternum back into place. She pulls one cracked rib back against it, and to her amazement, the cartilage starts to knit together. She gasps in surprise and places her hand on his chest. It doesn't rise and fall, but now there is a heartbeat. Oh god.

Jacob was dead. She is certain of it. When she opened her eyes, there was no movement in his body save the flow of blood down his belly and legs. She doesn't know what happened, but she hardly cares.

Jasmine nearly weeps for joy, but there is no time to waste. She has to close the cavity in his chest before every drop of his blood falls to the floor. Thankfully, his major arteries and veins went unmolested by Caius's assault. She hastily pushes his sternum and ribs closed one by one. She watches in amazement as the body begins to heal. The speed is shocking, even faster than the shifters' usual accelerated recovery. She has no idea how, especially since the fluttering in his chest can hardly be called a true heartbeat.

She doesn't wait for the skeleton to come together once she sees new scar tissue weaving his broken body together. As hopeful as she is, she knows that even if his heart resumes its rhythm, if there is no blood to carry oxygen to his body, it is pointless. And if his lungs draw in no air, the beating of his heart is equally meaningless. She stands to her full height to try to press her mouth to his and give him air, but again her chain pulls her back. She she moves the frame a few more inches. Jasmine crawls up Jacob's limp form and tilts his head back. His mouth falls open, and she lets go of his hair to pinch his nose shut and clamp her mouth over his.

And she breathes life into him.

One.

Two.

Three.

The heartbeat grows louder.

Four.

Five.

Six.

And louder.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

And he draws in a gasping breath.

Then she sees it. The mark on Jacob's collarbone shines with the faintest glow. And she understands. Jacob's heart beats not to its own rhythm, but to Bella's. His body heals because hers is whole. His mate keeps him alive.

Soon, there is nothing to do but watch the skin close, and wait for Jacob to open his eyes.

But he does not.

Instead, she hears Caius from somewhere outside the room. She carefully moves the frame back into place and curls up by the base just moments before he reenters. He holds fragments of Alec's skull in his hands. "Look what you did!" he spits at her. "This is going to take ages to put back together!"

Before he has a chance to say anything else, he catches sight of Jacob, and his jaw drops open in shock. "Impossible!" he murmurs, and for a full minute, he looks like a stone statue. His eyes finally snap to Jasmine. "What is this?"

She has no idea what to tell him, so she answers cryptically, "It's exactly what it looks like."

"It can't be!" He looks positively petrified.

"You have defied death. Why can't he?" she asks.

Caius finally springs back into action. He vanishes from the room momentarily, reappearing with a can of kerosene in his hands. He douses Jacob with it, but Jacob doesn't move.

Jasmine is alarmed. "What are you doing?" she demands.

He holds up a lighter. "A little insurance. Although I'd like to see him try to make it rain in this little room, I have a feeling he can't bring a rain cloud inside. And perhaps he can heal it if I burn all the flesh from his body. But it will still hurt, won't it? So if you want to spare him that pain, I'd like your cooperation."

"With what?" she asks reluctantly. She doesn't want to cooperate, but she is shocked that Caius hasn't already tried a different way to kill them both.

He opens the bottom drawer of the wardrobe and draws out a long length of chain, the heaviest yet. He tosses the end to her and ignites the lighter, holding it only a foot from Jacob. "Wrap this around your ankles. I want them bound together. Not even an inch between them."

Slowly, she complies. She doesn't know what else to do. She follows his instructions, and by the time she is done, chains bind her legs together from ankle to waist. Then he quickly envelops her upper body in chains. This time, she is tied so tightly that she cannot even wiggle her fingers.

And then there is nothing to do but watch him. He spends the next several hours painstakingly piecing Alec's crushed head back together. It is the most gruesome puzzle she has ever seen. The entire time, she keeps sneaking glances at Jacob, looking for any change in his condition, any sign that he is recovering further. But nothing happens. His heart beats, his chest rises and falls with breath, his wounds continue to heal.

But his consciousness does not return.

When Caius finally reattaches Alec's head to his body, he immediately orders the mist over both Jacob and Jasmine. He isn't willing to take any more chances that they will get free. Jasmine knows no more, and she doesn't hear their heated debate over how to kill their captives.

X-x-x-x-X

_Jacob wanders through a fog. The ground beneath his feet has no features. He looks up, and instead of the night sky, he sees only more fog. He reaches his hands out in front of him, but the haze is so thick he cannot even see his own fingertips. There is nothing here. Absolutely nothing. His heart tells him there is something to find, but he has no idea what it is._

_No. Not something. Someone. There is a someone. He struggles to remember, but just as the memory is at the edges of his mind, he thinks he sees something in front of him. He rushes toward it, but he feels like he is being sucked into quicksand. The more he struggles, the harder it is to move. Still he soldiers forward toward the looming mass. But as soon as he thinks it will take shape before him, it vanishes, and he closes his hands on empty air._

_The pattern repeats itself over and over again. Time passes, or perhaps it does not. He isn't certain he remembers what time is. He isn't certain of anything._

_He stumbles but feels no impact. He falls but feels no pain. He moves but goes nowhere. _

_And finally he stops. He sinks to his knees and closes his eyes. At least behind his eyes it is supposed to be black. Black. Black. Black. What does that mean? The word is supposed to mean something. _

_What is it?_

_Is Black animal? Vegetable? Mineral? Empty? Full? Life? Death? Cold? Warm?_

_That stops him. Warm. Nothing is warm here. The mist prickles at his skin. Moisture beads against him and sucks away his heat. He needs something else. He needs... He needs..._

_He tries to calm himself. He focuses on the sensation of his own thighs under his fingertips. He concentrates on drawing breath in and letting it out. He focuses on the beat of his own heart._

_And that is when he realizes it. His heart is beating. How is his heart beating? He doesn't know anything, but he knows it isn't supposed to beat. He presses his hand to his chest and feels the rhythmic thump, thump, thump._

_Whose heart is it? It cannot be his. His has stopped._

_And that is when he remembers. It isn't his heart. The heart in his chest doesn't beat for him, it beats for her. _

_Oh God! How could he forget her? He begins to laugh as he holds his palms to his chest and feels the vibrations inside. Now the black on the inside of his lids has started to lighten. He envisions her warm brown eyes, her loving, shy smile, the pretty blush of her pale skin. He breathes deeply and inhales her distinctive, comforting scent. He listens and hears her voice calling his name. It is tinny and distorted, as if through a long tunnel, but it's her. He laughs harder and opens his arms. And there is heat there. Not the chill against his back, but warmth. He reaches his hand forward, and his fingertips touch impossibly soft skin. A tingle goes up his arm. He opens his eyes._

And there she is.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my amazing Beta, Babs81410. Next chapter's up on Friday.


	40. Chapter 39

X-x-x-x-X

June 7

X-x-x-x-X

Quil returns to the woods to phase and call the rest of the pack back to La Push. The rest of the wolves have been searching in futility for any trace of Jasmine and Jacob, spiraling out in ever-widening circles from the storage facility. But thus far, they have discovered absolutely nothing. Every one of them saw Jasmine rip off Alec's head. For a moment, hope filled their hearts. But then they saw and felt their sister go down under the ancient monster's hand. And when she was dragged back into the torture room and they saw what had happened to their brother, friend, and Alpha, they despaired.

But it did not stop their search.

Quil's message renews their hope. They turn to make their way home as swiftly as possible. And when he returns to the house, he finds Bella standing by Jacob's bed with her hand outstretched above her. The air shimmers in front of her. Tears glisten in her eyes, and she is smiling gently.

Quil squints and strains his vision, and then he gasps.

Beside him, Billy asks hopefully, "Is it true? Is he really here?"

"Yeah," Quil breathes. Before him is the faintest outline of his best friend. He can see straight through Jacob's image. He has seen his brothers in spirit form before. They are always translucent, but now, the image is nearly invisible. If he wasn't paying the closest attention, he could easily walk by and never notice Jacob at all.

Quil enters the room so that he can see Jacob's face. His hands cup Bella's cheeks. He leans down to brush his nose against Bella's, and she laughs and closes her eyes.

"Jake?" Quil asks tentatively.

But Jacob does not respond.

Bella pulls away just slightly and looks between Quil and Jacob. "Jake, Quil's here. With your dad. Can you see them?"

For a second, Jacob looks around in confusion, a crease marring his brow. But then he catches sight of Bella again and smiles. "What was that, honey?" his voice is barely audible.

"Can you see Quil and your dad? They're here. They want to know you're okay."

Jacob just strokes Bella's cheeks and smiles at her. "I'm fine. As long as you're here too, I'm fine."

"But you're not, Jake," she insists. "We're coming to find you. I promise."

Jacob says calmly, "Find me? What do you mean? I'm right here with you."

"Not exactly. We need to find your body, Jake. We need to find you and bring you home."

Jacob's smile is beatific. "I am home. Home is wherever you are."

Quil interrupts, "Jake? Man, you need to tell us where you are. Can you tell us where you are?"

But Jacob doesn't even look at Quil. He keeps his eyes trained on Bella alone. She frowns and looks between them. "Quil asked you a question. Can you answer him?"

"Quil?" he frowns and blinks in confusion. But quickly his expression clears, he smiles at her again and leans down to kiss her gently. "Mmm. I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you too," Bella answers. "But you need to help us find you."

"Find me?"

Bella's elation at seeing Jacob's spirit form is rapidly turning into frustration. "Tell me what you can see."

"I see you," he answers instantly.

"What else?"

"What else is there?"

She points behind him to Billy. "Your dad is right over there."

Billy sits up straighter. "I'm right here, son! Are you okay?"

Jacob turns around, but clearly does not see his father. He turns back to Bella. "Hmm?"

"Don't you see Billy? Or Quil?" She points again.

He kisses her forehead. "I see you."

"Only me?" she clarifies.

"Only you. I'm so glad I found you. Everything else is just gray fog."

Quil curses. "Shit. He's in trouble. Either because he's lost too much blood and is totally unconscious and disoriented, or he's under Alec's spell or something. But there's no way Caius put him back together again, not yet. Jasmine crushed his skull into tiny pieces."

"We have to get to him before he's gone entirely," Billy agrees. "If the Cold One ripped his chest open, he's not going to make it."

"So this confusion will only get worse?" Bella asks.

Jacob tilts his head at her. "What are you talking about, honey?"

She smiles sadly up at him. "I'm going to find you. We're going to find you."

"But I'm right here." He grins and touches the tip of his finger to her nose. "Silly girl."

She smiles sadly at him. "Do you trust me, Jake?"

"Of course." He nods agreeably.

She takes his hands in hers, feeling warmth and tingling instead of flesh. "You know how you can't see anything around us but the fog? I'm going to try to get us out of here, okay?"

A crease appears between his eyebrows. "But you won't leave me here, right? All alone?"

She answers firmly, "I'm never letting you go."

Quil returns to the woods to tell his pack this latest news while Bella opens the window. The eagle lands on the sill immediately. For a few minutes, everyone is hopeful that Taha Aki will be able to get through to Jacob. And indeed, Jacob can sense his presence, even hearing the eagle's call when it lets out a piercing screech into the small room. But he does not seem to understand what it means.

In the pack mind, the wolves' reactions swing between joyous relief and terror. How long can Jacob's weakened body last without his spirit? And if his body dies, what happens to his spirit? Or is he already dead? Will his lost soul trail after Bella forever, or will he fade away entirely? And how, exactly, does Bella plan on finding him?

A few hours pass as they run. One by one, they emerge from the woods. They bypass the homes of their mothers and their imprints. There is only one place to be. Slowly, they fill Billy's house.

Leah, always the fastest, arrives first. She finds Quil snoring on the couch. Rachel greets her in the living room, but she barely spares a glance for her old friend. She goes straight to Jacob's bedroom, where Bella lies on the bed. Just as she had seen in Quil's mind, Jacob's image is a little hard to see, but he is definitely there. He hovers over Bella, dropping kisses all over her face.

"Oh my god, what on earth are you guys doing? Aren't you supposed to be spirit walking? Don't you have better things to do than make out?"

Bella winces, a guilty blush creeping over her face, and leans up on her elbow to face Leah. "It's not like that. I've been trying, but I don't know what I'm doing, and Jake can't remember what's going on. I was hoping he could teach me what to do, but he's sort of disoriented and lost, and this is the only thing that makes him feel better. I've tried to get him to stop so I can focus, but he doesn't remember for long."

Jacob has moved to spoon Bella and is nuzzling the crook of her neck with his lips. "Who are you talking to, babe?"

Bella points and answers, "Leah. She's right there."

Jacob frowns, obviously struggling to remember. "Leah? Who's Leah? And where is she? I can't see anything. Why can't I see anything but you?"

"It's okay. Leah's here to help. She's here to help me find you."

He thinks she is joking and grins at her. "Find me? Aren't I right here?"

"We need to find your body," Bella clarifies, and Jacob looks down at his form in confusion.

"Shit. So he's really pretty bad, huh?" Now Leah is concerned. "Has anybody tried spirit walking to you? Tried helping you out? Maybe someone else can talk to him, and also help teach you what to do."

"That's a good idea. Is anybody available?"

Leah starts for the door. "Let me find Collin. He's got the best range, short of Jacob here." She jogs back into the woods and phases in, immediately locating Brady. Collin had left the reservation and run south to try to further his range of spirit walking in the search for his cousin and Alpha. When he met up with Brady, they had found a secluded location from which to spirit walk, and Brady sat still in wolf form, guarding Collin's prone human body. After losing Jake to inadequate defenses while spirit walking, Sam made sure Collin was well protected. After speaking with Leah, Brady shakes Collin until he opens his eyes and passes along Leah's message.

Leah returns to Jacob's bedroom a few minutes later. "Collin doesn't travel instantaneously like Jake can, but he'll be here pretty soon."

Bella runs her hands through Jacob's hair, and he lifts his face from her belly. "Did you hear that? Collin's going to be here soon. Maybe he can help you find your way through the fog."

"Hmm? The fog?" He blinks serenely at her.

"Didn't you say you're surrounded by fog?"

He looks around. "Oh, yeah. That."

"And Collin's going to come soon."

"Collin?"

"Your cousin Collin."

He looks at her blankly. "Who?"

She smiles sadly at him. "It's okay. Never mind." She looks at Leah. "Why don't you get some food, or sleep, or something. Whenever it is I figure out where he is, you'll probably have quite a run in front of you."

They hear Rachel answer the door, and the scent of pizza draws Leah out. She helps Rachel with the stack of a dozen pizzas and scarfs down half a pie before Quil wakes up and eats an entire Meat Lover's by himself. Jared and Embry arrive in time to find Leah emerging from the bathroom, freshly showered and wearing one of Rachel's dresses. She nods at them blearily before immediately passing out on Quil's abandoned spot on the couch. And as they each take a pizza for themselves, Collin's translucent form drifts through the back door, waves at them, and disappears through the wall into Jacob's room. Everyone except Collin and Brady arrive, and by evening, the home is bursting with warm bodies. Every one of them peeks in on Bella and the disoriented spirit of their Alpha until the eagle shooes them out, flapping its wings and hopping along the floor. Collin explains that they are disrupting Bella's attempts at spirit walking. Rosalie and Emmett don't bother looking in. They know they will be unable to see Jacob unless they find his body.

Unfortunately, Jacob can barely sense Collin's presence. He hears his cousin's voice speaking to him as if from a great distance, and he hears the eagle as well, but understands nothing they say. But he himself seems to be fading away slowly and steadily, and with every passing minute, his confusion grows greater. Bella and Collin both fear that it is a sign that his body is weakening. Knowing the severity of his injuries, they realize that if they do not find him soon, his spirit will have nothing to return to. Neither one of them is willing to consider the possibility that his body is already dead.

Around midnight, Jacob finally quiets down. She doesn't know if he has forgotten how to speak or if he is just too exhausted to do so, and is simultaneously relieved and terrified. He keeps his hand twined with hers, his thumb tracing circles over the back of her hand. She focuses on the gentle touch and gradually centers herself. She closes her eyes and slows her breathing. She allows her world to narrow down to Jacob's hand in hers.

_And then his touch feels more real than anything else around her. She opens her eyes. "Jacob?"_

_He just smiles at her, raises her hand to her lips, and kisses it sweetly._

_She sees Collin over his shoulder. He grins at her. "You did it! You really did it!"_

_"Wow." She picks up her free hand and realizes she can see right through it. "This is insane!"_

_Jacob wraps both of his arms around her and squeezes tightly. She presses kisses across every patch of flesh she can reach, but is quickly interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing behind her. She turns to see Taha Aki glaring sternly at her. Gone is the eagle. Instead, the man appears to be standing on the floor, his legs disappearing into the mattress._

_"Remember what you are here to do." He glances at Collin. "Both of you." Struck dumb, Collin and Bella just nod mutely. "Go ahead."_

_"How do I start?"_

_He prompts, "How do you always start?"_

_"Through the window."_

_Taha Aki nods, steps away from the opening, and gestures toward it with his arm. Bella clears her throat nervously and moves toward it, but Jacob pulls her back with a little frown on his face._

_Bella smiles at him and squeezes his hand. "Come with me."_

_And then his face relaxes into a confused smile, and he follows her. _

_Bella doesn't appear by Jacob's body as soon as she steps through the frame. Instead, she simply finds herself in the backyard. She lets go of Jacob's hand and spins around, looking for any sign of where to go. And that's when she feels it. There is heat on her skin, faint but unmistakable, but only on one side of her body. She points south. "We need to go that way."_

_She looks back at Taha Aki, and he nods grimly at her. "Go, then. There is no time to waste." And indeed, Jacob's image is still fading. Before, she could barely see through him to the other side. Now, however, even she has to strain to see him._

_Collin retreats. "I'm going to get the others!" And he floats through the wall. _

_Bella doesn't wait to hear him wake up his sister and brothers. She doesn't wait for her father to come into the room and place his palm on her forehead, gently brushing the hair from her face. She takes Jacob by the hand, and together they jump into the night sky. She puts out her free hand, moving it to and fro until she finds the warmest patch of air. Then she moves toward it._

_Beside her, Jacob says nothing. But he will follow her where she goes until he can follow no more. On her other side, she sees the eagle, once more in physical form, flying by her side. The peregrine falcon falls into formation behind the eagle. She looks into the night sky. It is uncommonly clear. The moon is full and illuminates their way. A thousand pinpoints of light shine down from above. Were it not for the dire circumstance, this would be the most beautiful and exhilarating experience of her life. _

_But it is not. Bella is terrified about what comes before her. But instead of cowering behind a line of protectors, friends and acquaintances putting themselves on the line for her, this time, she is in the lead. She resolves never again to be the damsel in distress. This time, she is the rescuer. Not the rescued. _

_Behind her, she hears the newly invigorated howls of the pack. Despite only having a handful of hours of sleep, they are ready to race. Ready to fight. Ready to end the lives of the monsters who have kidnapped their kin, to avenge the thousands who have died to sate their unquenchable thirst for centuries. They are ready for revenge. _

_Bella has to slow her pace through the air to accommodate them. She has to stay in sight of their keen eyes. After all, she may be the scout, but they are the cavalry. She races low over forests, along the coast, over rivers and brooks and hills. She feels heat before her and chill behind. She flies. _

_After an hour, the mountain lion joins them. It had not wanted to return to La Push, choosing instead to keep searching for Jacob's trail on foot, but had discovered nothing. She looks around for the black and brown bear, but they do not appear, and she fears the worst for them, realizing that she does not know what happened to them after they were injured in battle._

_She doesn't let go of Jacob's hand. With every passing mile, his fingers feel a little cooler and he moves a little more sluggishly. She steals glances at him from time to time, and every time she looks, he is a little more difficult to see. _

_But his soft smile remains, and his warm eyes stay locked on her. He looks confused, and obviously doesn't understand what is going on. He doesn't speak, doesn't ask questions, doesn't want to know what they are doing. He doesn't notice when Collin splits off to reclaim his body so that he and Brady can join the hunt. He doesn't see Taha Aki speeding alongside them, nor hear the heavy footfalls of his pack behind them. But he will go where she goes. She is his only anchor to the world._

_The sun has not yet risen when the heat in front of Bella rises to almost uncomfortable levels. They are close, and she knows it. She lowers herself to the ground, pulling Jacob's cool hand in hers, until Leah catches up with her. Her friend phases into her human body and tugs on her dress. _

"What is it?" Leah asks.

_"We're close. I don't know how close, but we're almost there."_

Leah looks puzzled. "Then what are we waiting for?"

_Bella squeezes Jacob's hand. "He's in danger. Even if we find him in time, he's going to need help. More help than the pack can provide. It's why he's fading. Can't you see? He's going to need a hospital."_

"Then we'll do it. I don't care about the stupid secret. We'll take him to a hospital."

_"Ask Rose if she knows where we are or where the nearest hospital is. Or better yet, if there's any alternative. I don't think the problem is just about keeping the secret. They won't know what to do with him. His body is so different." _

_Leah just nods and phases back in. Bella doesn't wait for an answer. She rises into the sky and sees Seth, who until now was running beside Emmett and Rosalie, phase out and pull them aside. Rose and Emmett break away from the pack, sprinting off to the east. Brady follows them. She doesn't wait to find out where they're going. She can't. Because as soon as she turns around, she realizes Jacob's hand is no longer clamped in hers._

_She twists around in the air and looks about her in alarm until the eagle's call alerts her to Jacob's whereabouts. She can barely see him anymore. He is almost completely invisible. He is drifting aimlessly up in the air, face turned up to the night sky. _

_"Jacob!" she cries._

_Immediately, he looks down at her. He waves to her guilelessly._

_She races up to him and throws her arms around his shoulders. He twines his legs with hers, squeezes her around her waist, and buries his face in her hair. "Don't do that to me! Don't run off!" He looks at her apologetically without quite knowing why. "We don't have a lot of time." She untangles herself but keeps a firm grip on his hand. "We've got to go." He allows himself to be pulled along. _

_And minutes later, she sees it. She doesn't need the sensation of heat on her face, nor the chill at her back, to tell her where Jacob is. She just knows._

_It is just as he described it. The home is large and isolated. It sits on a parcel of land covering several acres. The roof is black, the siding white. A black SUV is visible through the open garage door, the very same one Seth spotted speeding away from the Olympic National Forest. _

_Bella descends on the home before the eagles flies directly in front of her face. The falcon joins in order to herd her back toward the rest of the pack. She starts to protest. "But he's in there! I have to help him! He's almost gone!"_

_And indeed, Jacob's hand in hers is ice cold, and his image a bare shadow. _

_But the taxilits insist, shepherding her to Jacob's sister and brothers. Leah is once again the first to arrive. She begins to circle the building from the forest, trying to see the best way in. Embry and Jared arrive next. They stay hidden in the woods. Finally Seth arrives, and the eagle takes to the air. Seth understands immediately what he wants, and he phases into his human body and lies upon the ground. His taxilit stands guard over him. _

_And then his spirit appears before her eyes. He nods toward the house. "Let's go."_

_Bella leads the way. She feels the duality of Jacob, both his dimming spirit by her side, and his rapidly weakening human form before her. She floats directly through the outer wall of the house, up to the second floor, past two lifeless and broken corpses, and through two shockingly unremarkable bedrooms, a large bathroom, and a linen closet. _

_And there he is. _

_Her Jacob. Naked and covered in streaks of his own dried blood. Shining kerosene draws trails in the rusty, blackened flakes. His head lolls forward, and were it not for the manacles around his wrists and ankles, he would fall to the floor. But his skin is unmarred. None of the hideous scars of his torture remain on his skin. If she didn't know better, she would believe the blood came from someone else. _

_She approaches him, afraid to get any closer but terrified of leaving him. She kisses his brow, but he does not move. Beside her, his spirit looks at her questioningly. He does not seem to even see his own body. _

_She looks to Seth, who is hovering over Caius and Alec. They are huddled together in the corner having a heated debate. Alec has his mist thrown over both of the wolves. For the first time, Bella notices Jasmine cocooned in chains in the opposite corner. _

_"Jacob, you have to go back into your body," she urges. He just stares at her._

_Seth approaches Jacob's limp form and places his ear against his chest. He shakes his head. "I don't think that's the problem. His body is too weak. His pulse is racing, and it sounds really weak. He needs medical attention more than he needs to be inside his own body. Plus, what good does it do him to get back into this body while he's still trapped?"_

_"So what do we do?" she whispers. _

_Seth's expression hardens. "We come back and destroy these fuckers, and we get them out of here."_

_They return to the forest, where most of the pack has now gathered. Collin sends his spirit inside to watch for any changes, while the rest remain in wolf form. Bella watches them as she tends to Jacob's lost spirit. She wishes she could hear their silent conversation, but all she can do is look on as they turn their heads to and fro, debating how to proceed._

Seth shows them the floor plan of the house, and Jasmine's and Jacob's conditions.

Paul growls. _We should storm the place. We don't have any time to lose. Two against eleven? There's no way they can take down all of us._

Sam shakes his head. _Not good enough. Those were the odds when we lost them._

Seth agrees. _Trapped in the room like that, with just one way in? It's just like Alec hiding in that cave. All he'll have to do is hear us coming, throw his mist in the doorway, and we'll be stuck in the hall like rats in a maze._

_Then let's not go through the door,_ Leah says quietly.

The pack turns to her with quizzical expressions, but before she can elaborate, they see Brady running to them, Rosalie and Emmett following closely behind. He says, _Before you guys decide what to do, I think you should hear what Rose has to say._

They appear in the small clearing a minute later. By then, the wolves have phased into their human forms in order to speak with the Cullens. Rosalie begins. "I think I have a distraction. Carlisle and Alice just called. They have some news that I think both Caius and Alec will find interesting."

And as she speaks, a plan rapidly takes shape.

Fifteen minutes later, everyone is in place.

_Seth circles the building slowly, but then he builds up speed. He soars in a tight circle, whipping the air into a frenzy. He builds up an expanding cyclone. The shutters rattle against the siding, and the windows shake in their panes. He lets out an ear splitting whine, and his wind begins to shriek. _

And the wolves approach, the padding of their feet and the soft sounds of their heartbeat and breath masked by the roaring wind. Inside, the vampires halt their conversation and listen to the wind.

Rosalie stands in the middle of the back yard and screams. "Alec! Caius! I have some news. I think you'll want to hear it."

Inside, they frown at one another. Caius whispers, "How did they find us? I didn't see that eagle tracking us here."

Alec shakes his head. "Anything could have been watching us from the woods. If the animals are under their control, I don't know how we could have avoided detection. They must have spies everywhere."

"It's time to cut our losses. Get rid of these two and find a way out of here." Caius stands. "A shame. If we could enslave them, think of the power we would wield!"

But from outside, Rosalie calls again, "Alec, do you or do you not want to know what happened to your sister?"

Caius immediately grabs Alec's arm. "Don't go out there! It's a trap. It has to be!"

"Of course it is," Alec sneers. "I'm not going to walk out the front door. What kind of idiot do you take me for?"

Rosalie's voice sounds again. "And Caius. Would you like to know what happened to Aro? What happened to the guard you abandoned? Would you like to know what happened to your wife?"

Caius' eyes grow wide. "Athenodora!"

"Would you like to know if she is alive or dead? Or is your hunt, your sport, more important than the life of your beloved?"

Alec glares at Caius. "She is safe in her tower. Safer than she would be here, in the middle of this mess. You didn't bring for her for a reason, remember?"

Rosalie's voice breaks through the howling wind. "But even if you do not care about her fate, I think Alec would like to know what happened to his sister. The bond between mates is strong, of course it is. But it is nothing compared to the bond between twins. You might love Athenodora like you have never loved another, but Alec has loved Jane since before they were born. They were human together, immortals together, but they did not die together. I think Alec has the right to know what really happened to his sister."

Alec finally hisses an order at Caius. "You stay here. I want to know what she has to say." He points at Jasmine and Jacob. "Make sure nothing happens to either of them." The other vampire is so taken aback that he does not move.

Alec moves down the hall and into a rear bedroom. The window overlooks the large backyard, where the scattered foliage is bending nearly to the point of breaking under Seth's whirlwind. Rosalie stands before the decorative pond, her hair whipping out to the side. She smiles grimly. "Hello, Alec."

He yells through the glass. The wind is so loud that a human would only understand him if they could read lips, but Rosalie has no difficulty, nor do any of the other wolves. They start to close in, moving very slowly and carefully so as to not be heard. Seth raises the shrieks of his wind to give them cover. "Say your piece."

"You've all been had. Carlisle and Alice just called me from Bucharest."

"So you were lying the entire time! I knew you must be in contact with them!"

"Of course we weren't." She shakes her head. "If we were, Aro could have pulled it out of our brains at any second. No. They're not in hiding anymore. There's no one left to hide from. Volterra is no more. Your enemies have finally had their revenge."

And Alec puts the pieces together. "Stefan and Vladimir," he breathes.

"Yes. They set you up. And unwittingly, they framed the shaman and his wolves. They killed your sister, and more importantly for their purposes, they killed Chelsea. The one who held you all together. It was all a power play."

"They've been waiting for their chance for centuries!" Alec nods. "I should have known."

"One of you should have known. Why do you think they were ready to descend on Volterra the moment you left? Power and wealth have made you complacent."

"But how?" Alec asks. "Those two old men against my sister? Against Felix?"

"They had help. They didn't do the dirty work themselves. Too much risk. Who else has been sitting on the sidelines, watching and waiting, their hate growing over the centuries?"

Alec guesses. "The Egyptians? But they are as impotent as the Romanians."

"Not anymore. Years ago, Amun turned a young street magician named Benjamin, whose powers are much like that of the shaman. He controls the elements. Amun has been trying to turn him into a weapon to defeat you ever since."

"And he finally succeeded?"

Rosalie shakes her head again. "The Romanians succeeded in doing what Amun never could. They killed Benjamin's mate, Tia, and framed Jane, Chelsea, and Felix."

"So Benjamin killed my sister?"

"He was the puppet. Stefan and Vladimir pulled the strings. But that was not revealed until after they united forces with the Egyptians and overthrew Aro sometime late last night."

Although he hardly cares anymore, as the only thing of value to him in Volterra disappeared when his sister died, Alec asks, "What of Volterra?"

Rosalie glances up at Seth, who quickly dives into the house to see if everyone is in place. Seconds later, his head pokes through the roof, and he signals Rosalie before lowering himself back down.

"Ashes," Rosalie answers simply. "With you and Alec gone? Marcus? Your sister? Chelsea? Who did Aro have left? Thugs. And the wives." Rosalie raises her voice to mask the sounds of the wolves getting into place inside the home, and to yell at Caius. She wants this to hurt. "Aro didn't take to your desertion gracefully. When the Romanians and the Egyptians arrived with an army only hours after you abandoned him, he was certain you had turned on him. You should have taken your wife with you, Caius. Before Benjamin killed him, Aro took his vengeance out on Athenodora!"

Enraged, Caius screams and flicks open his lighter and flings it at Jacob's kerosene-soaked body.

_But Seth blows out the flame before it can reach him._

At that moment, chaos erupts. Emmett grabs the gutter and swings down from the roof, crashing through the window, only to land on Alec. Jared squeezes his huge wolf form through the open bedroom door and leaps over the bed. Both of them are immediately enveloped in Alec's mist as he thrusts his hands out in opposite directions. But just as Alec kicks Emmett's disoriented body off him, Sam and Leah crash through opposite walls, drywall, studs, and splinters flying through the room. A cloud of dust intermingles with the choking black mist.

Paul leaps into the torture chamber a second after Emmett breaks the window. Caius flies at him immediately, and they collide. Paul's sheer bulk pushes Caius back, and he falls against the arms of the St. Andrew's cross where Jacob still hangs. Caius shoves Paul up and off him, but Quil immediately takes his place, sinking his teeth deep into Caius's leg. Caius flails and kicks at Quil's muzzle, but it only results in a small fracture for Quil and the loss of Caius's stony limb just above the knee. Paul takes the opportunity to go for his skull, but Caius throws his arms up just in time. Paul simply takes both hands into his jaw and drags Caius into the hall. With a powerful twist of his head, he throws the vampire over the railing of the second story balcony that overlooks the main vestibule. Caius crashes against the crystal chandelier and lands on the marble floor below, but both his arms and one of his legs remain on the second floor.

Upstairs, Alec is overwhelmed. He only has two hands and is unable to throw mist in every direction at once. And he has no skill of hand to hand combat, not against other vampires, and certainly not against these monstrous animals. As Sam lunges for his head and Leah for his legs, he swings his mist from Emmett to Sam. The huge black wolf is stopped, but it leaves Leah to sink her teeth deeply into his right leg. She yanks at the same time that Emmett wrenches off his left arm at the elbow and flings it out the window, where Brady catches it. Collin immediately phases out and retrieves his lighter, and then the arm blazes.

Alec screams, but the awful sound only lasts a second. As his mist disappears, his pain too overwhelming for him to maintain it, Sam and Jared descend on him. Sam tears off his head, Jared his right arm, and Emmett throws his torso onto the fire below. Paul flings both of Caius's arms and his leg into the room and runs down hall.

Embry has already leapt off the balcony and landed on the screaming Caius. He has his jaws on the vampire's face, muffling his shrieks. Paul dives over the railing and lands just past the writhing vampire, skidding to a stop just beyond Caius's remaining leg. He bites hard into the thigh and pulls back, and abruptly, Caius stops screaming. He cannot. His head is gone. He and Embry efficiently rip apart the body, while Collin enters through the front door to take the remains and toss them onto the fire.

Upstairs, the rest of the pack is trying to pile into the torture chamber. Jasmine croaks weakly, "In the cloak. The keys are in the pocket."

Leah retrieves them immediately. Her hands are steady as she efficiently tries them one by one in the shackles binding Jacob to the cross. Her voice is low and hard. "Come on, Jake. Wake up. Wake up, man! Bella, get him back together!"

Then she finds the correct key. She frees his right arm, then his left, and he collapses into Quil's arms. Once she has both ankles free, Quil gently lowers him to the ground, takes the keys from Leah, and moves to remove Jasmine's chains. The traumatized girl would weep if she had any more tears to shed.

Leah cradles Jacob's unconscious body in her lap, but she looks at his disoriented, almost invisible form hovering in the corner with Bella. "Jake! Get back in here!" But Jacob doesn't hear her.

_"It's time, Jake," Bella urges._

_He just smiles at her. He doesn't understand._

_She takes him by his frigid hand and leads him back to his body. He follows obediently but sluggishly, and she points at his almost lifeless form. "Go on. I need you to go back to your body now."_

_He just tilts his head at her._

_Bella is growing frantic. Their rescue is for naught if she cannot merge his disparate forms, and if he fades away entirely. "Come on. Come on, Jake!"_

_He doesn't move._

_"Do you trust me?"_

_At this, he smiles._

_She opens her arms. "Then come here. Come with me. Lie with me."_

_He steps into her embrace, and she lowers them to his body. She spins them midair, slowly, until he is beneath her, and then they sink down. Carefully she pushes his legs into place with her feet, his arms with her hands, and finally, with a lingering kiss to his lips, pushes him back into his body. _

_And then she steps back._

But nothing happens. Jacob's lips are blue despite the fact that the wolves can still hear his faint, fluttering heartbeat, and they can see his chest continue to rise and fall with shallow breaths.

_"What's going on?" Bella whimpers. "Why isn't he waking up?"_

Rosalie appears in the doorway and pushes everyone aside. Outside, a horn honks. "Get out of my way, guys. He's in shock. Hypovolemic shock." She picks him up in a fireman's carry, struggling a bit as his skin, slippery from the kerosene, slides between her fingers, and vanishes into the hallway. Her voice drifts back, "The only thing keeping him alive right now is Bella's heartbeat. He'd be long dead if it weren't for that. But even her heart can't fix his blood loss and dehydration."

Emmett flings open the rear doors of a stolen ambulance, and Rosalie jumps in. She lowers Jacob onto the stretcher, where his feet hang off the edge. One minute later, she has IVs running into both arms. She shoves a thermometer into his ear and curses when it beeps. She looks over her shoulder, where the pack is clamoring to see what is going on inside. "What's his temperature supposed to be?"

"About 108," Sam's raspy voice answers. "What is it?"

"96." She pulls out a blood pressure cuff and measures that, then curses again. "Shit. 44/28. Taching away at 142. Wherever your body is, Bella, I'll bet it feels totally fucked up." She can't see her friend, but she has actually been leaning through Bella's spirit form where she has lain over Jacob's unmoving body during the resuscitation. Rosalie jabs at Jacob's icy index finger and massages it until she gets a drop of blood, then inserts the sample into a small red machine. She taps her foot impatiently as she waits the three minutes for it to beep, and then she curses again. "5.4," she mutters.

"Why isn't he waking up?" Leah asks. "What do we do?"

"Wait, that's all. Fluids. Or somebody drive me to a blood bank, and one of you can break in. Unless one of you happens to share his blood type, or even knows what it is. That's really what he needs. This saline will get his blood pressure up, but what he really needs is blood. Shit. I don't even know if he can be transfused with human blood."

From the front door, where Quil is carrying Jasmine out wrapped in a pilfered bathrobe he found in the house, she croaks, "Um, I'm O negative. Or I used to be before I phased, anyway."

Rosalie huffs, "Finally. The bitch is good for something. Get in here."

Twenty minutes later, the ambulance is speeding north on I-5 with Jacob, Bella's spirit form, and Rosalie in the back, Emmett at the wheel, and Jasmine in the passenger seat. Rosalie tucks a blanket around Jacob. The wolves run alongside the vehicle, flashes of their fur intermittently visible through the trees in the early morning sun, their taxilits at their sides. As Rosalie switches one of the bags of saline out for the bag of blood, Jasmine asks if he'll be all right.

"If he is, it's no thanks to you, you stupid..."

"Rose!" Emmett cuts her off. "Yell at her later. Just focus on Jacob."

"Fine. Make sure she doesn't talk to me," Rosalie spits. "After she gives me a second unit."

_Bella looks at Jasmine through the opening between the cab and the rear of the ambulance. She looks utterly miserable. Her body is turned sideways, and she stares at Jacob's unresponsive body unflinchingly. Emmett hands her a bottle of water, and the drinks it in a few huge gulps. Then Bella asks her, "Has anyone called Billy?"_

Jasmine shakes her head. "They're all in wolf form. There's no way."

_"Can you?"_

Jasmine's face crumples. She can't face Jacob's father. Not after the way she nearly got him killed. Did get him killed. "I can't," she whispers.

Rosalie glares at her. "Can't what?"

She sniffs. "Bella wants to let Billy know what's going on."

"And you don't think you should be the one to tell him?"

"No," Jasmine whispers.

Rosalie huffs. "For once, we agree." She pulls her own phone out of her pocket and dials. She tells Billy that she has Jacob, and she explains his condition. She hopes that as his blood supply replenishes, he will awaken. But the fact remains that she has no idea if he has sustained any brain damage, either from head injury, or from lack of oxygen to the brain. All they can do is wait and hope.

When the second unit of blood has transfused, but Jacob has still not opened his eyes, Jasmine begins to cry.

Rosalie loses her temper. "Shut up! You don't deserve to shed a single tear for him! It's your fault he's here, like this. So either quit your whining, or I shove you out the door at ninety miles per hour!"

Jasmine quiets, but thinks seriously about flinging herself out the door anyway. Rosalie's words are harsh, but she knows how true they are. She extends her arm and says softly, "Take another pint. He needs it more than I do."

Rosalie grumbles, "I'm not actually going to kill you, no matter how happy it would make me. Put your arm away."

"But he needs more, doesn't he?"

"Probably. But not from you."

"Who, then? Can he even take normal, human blood?"

"Probably not. It probably has to be shifter blood."

Jasmine doesn't speak again for the duration of the trip. Instead, she stares at Bella's spirit form draped over Jacob's still body.

_Bella draws her fingers gently over Jacob's cheeks, lips, and chin. She strokes gently over his shoulder, lingering over the mark her teeth left in his skin from their dream. He warms very slowly under her touch, but he does not stir. His skin still looks much too pale, and although his heart beats steadily and his lungs rise and fall without fail, he makes no other movement. Bella leans over to whisper words of devotion and plea for his return, but nothing happens. So she lays her head on his chest and does not let him go._

When they finally arrive in La Push four hours later, Sue opens the ambulance door before Emmett has come to a complete stop. Bella leaves Jacob's side just long enough to reenter her body lying on his bed and rush outside with Charlie. Billy is sitting at the rear of the ambulance straining to see his son. "How is he?"

Jacob doesn't respond to the sound of his father's voice, nor to Bella's touch when she clambers into the vehicle and grasps his hand. Rosalie answers, "Not much change, really. Blood pressure is better, 102/64. He's a little warmer, 104.1, but nowhere near normal." She looks at Sue. "Hemoglobin bumped to 8 after two units from Jasmine. And I don't know where he usually runs, but I'll bet the wolves are supposed to run much higher than the average human. But I'm really not sure why he hasn't woken up."

"Do we take him to the hospital?" Billy asks.

Sue hesitates. "We could. But as soon as someone takes his temperature and sees how high it is, they're going to think he's got an infection and pump him full of antibiotics. And that's not going to do a thing."

"Let me call Carlisle," Rosalie offers. "The family is safe now that the Volturi are gone. Last time I talked to them, they were trying to figure out how quickly they could get back here. Maybe he can help."

Charlie asks, "Where are they?"

"Romania."

She steps away to make the call, while the pack emerges from the woods. Sam carries Jacob inside and to his bed. He squeezes Bella's hand and gives her what is meant to be a reassuring look, but she just waits for him to leave. As soon as she knows they are alone, she tugs his sheets down to expose his chest. With one hand, she traces a path down the middle of his chest, only hours ago ripped apart by a sadistic monster, and she feels the strong thuds of his heart under her fingertips. She leans over to kiss the point where the beat is strongest. Then she retrieves warm water and several cloths and gently cleanses his body of the signs of his abuse. By the time she is done, he looks flawless, but for her mark on his collarbone and the fact that he will not wake. She crawls into the bed. She opens his arm and tucks her head into the crook of his shoulder, twining herself around him.

Exhaustion overwhelms her, and she sleeps.

_And in her dream, the fog has cleared from around the little red house, but the windows are still dark and the curtains still. She approaches it warily, not knowing what she will find inside. But as she moves close, she realizes that the chill that she last felt in this air is also gone. She reaches her hand to the knob and finds it warm to the touch. She opens it eagerly. She doesn't bother to turn on the light in the living room or the hall. She goes straight for his bedroom and bursts into it._

_It is dim, but she can see the outline of his body on the bed. She listens, and she hears the even sound of his slow, deep breaths. She stands over him and smiles. She reaches out one hand and touches the tips of his fingers where they rest on his sheets. She twines hers with his, but he does not wake. So she squeezes his hand, but he does not squeeze back. _

_"Jacob?" she asks tentatively. She wants to let him rest, but she needs to hear his voice._

_Instead, all she hears is a sigh._

_She kneels on the bed and brushes his hair back from his forehead. She might be imagining it, but she thinks his expression relaxes slightly. But nothing more._

_So she bends over him and presses her lips to his brow. Again, a sigh, but that is all. So she rains kisses over his cheeks, his nose, his eyelids, his chin, and finally his soft lips. _

_But nothing happens._

_She tries again. "Jacob?"_

_She squeezes his shoulder. "Jake?"_

_Nothing._

_So she opens his arm and tucks her head into the crook of his shoulder, twining herself around him. He is warm and solid and hers, but she does not know if he is whole, or if he is entirely here. Sorrow envelops her, and she tries to hold back a sob. She needs him to open his eyes. She needs to see his bright smile. She needs to feels his arms tighten around her. She needs to hear her name fall from his lips._

_Instead, she hears a deep voice behind her. "Call him home, daughter."_

_A tear slips from her eye, but she brushes it away before it can fall. She hesitates. She is afraid. If she calls for him and he does not return, what is she to do?_

_"Call him home."_

_She takes a deep breath, but all that comes out is a slight whisper. Even the spirit standing only feet behind her cannot hear it. It is meant for him alone. "Shipa. Please come home to me."_

_But nothing happens. _

_Bella cannot stop her tears from spreading over his soft skin. She has done everything she can, but it is not enough. She left her own body to find him, flew across miles to reunite his spirit and his body. She loved him as she never imagined she could love, bravely and wholeheartedly and without any reservation or a single regret. She gave herself to him, and she claimed him as hers, and there will never be another for her. She clings to him, sobbing, and grabs at his opposite shoulder. Her fingers run across the mark she left on his skin, and instinctively, she crawls over him to kiss that spot once more. Her proof that they belong to each other. And her tears sink into the moon-shaped indentation._

_And the chest beneath her cheek vibrates. "Honey, why are you crying?" His arm tightens around her waist, and his other hand buries itself in her hair, trying to turn her to meet his gaze._

_She doesn't move. "Jacob? Where have you been?" She is afraid to look up and find out that she is hallucinating. _

_"I'm right here." His voice is raspy, but unmistakably his._

_Still she doesn't turn to look up at him. "You're here?" She is afraid to wake up and find out that this is just a dream._

_Love infuses two words. "I'm here," he reassures her._

She picks up her head and looks into his dark, shining eyes. "This isn't a dream?"

He smiles at her, and it sends more tears rolling down her cheeks to land on him. "It was a nightmare, but you woke me up." He crushes her to him, and she slides her arms down and slides them between his back and the mattress. For once, she squeezes him as tightly as he squeezes her. Her tears do not stop, but these are not of sorrow. She breaks away just enough to slide up and lower her lips to his, and warmth spreads over both their bodies. They kiss for a second, an hour, a year, an age, until a deep voice sounds from behind her.

"Thank you for finding my son." She knows this voice, and it doesn't belong to Billy.

She turns her head until she can see the spirit chief. "Thank you for showing me the way."

Jacob adds, "Thank you for showing us to each other."

Taha Aki smiles at them both. "I want my children to be happy, and to be strong, and to love each other well."

Bella turns back to Jacob and says to him quietly, "When I am with Jacob, I am happier, and stronger, more loving, and better loved, than I knew was possible."

But when she twists around, no one is there. Together, they sit up and look out the window, and they see the eagle take to the air, rising toward the sun.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Many thanks to my beta, Babs81410.


	41. Chapter 40

X-x-x-x-X

June 8

X-x-x-x-X

It turns out to be physically impossible to fit the entire pack in Jacob's small room, but that doesn't stop them from trying. Charlie, however, manhandles their huge bodies out of the way to clear a path for Rachel and Billy. Although his chair can't clear the door, he can see his son, and his eyes shine with unshed tears when he sees Jacob sitting up in bed.

"Jacob," Billy says simply.

"Hi, dad. Sorry to give you a scare."

Billy shakes his head. "Don't apologize. Just, no more. My heart can't take it!"

Jacob threads Bella's fingers through his own. "Speaking of hearts, I think you saved mine." He pulls up her hand and kisses each one of her knuckles.

After Bella breaks her gaze with Jacob, she meets Billy's eyes. "Thank you, Bella. If it weren't for you..." He doesn't even want to complete the thought even though the threat is gone.

"Eh," Charlie grins. "She kind of owed him. Now they're even."

Rachel pulls Jacob toward her for the sort of hug she hasn't given him since they were children. "Whoa!" He laughs and sways a bit in the bed after she lets him go.

"When Bella stopped... and then you... and you wouldn't wake up..." She can't articulate her terror. "I was so afraid you were dead! That you weren't coming back!"

He falls back against Bella. "Dizzy there, sorry. Don't worry, Rach. I've got way too much to come back for."

Embry teases him, "I thought you were maybe just going to haunt Bella for all eternity." His words are joking, but a little sniffle reveals he is almost as emotional as Rachel.

"I'd scare off any other guys who came her way," Jacob jokes. But Bella doesn't think it's funny and just frowns at him. "Sorry. Too soon?"

"It will always be too soon! Don't joke about it. Not when you've come close so many times. Your dad was right. No more!"

"Do you need anything, son?" Billy asks. "You said you were dizzy. Can I get you something to eat or drink?"

"I'm starving, but I also feel like if I put anything in my stomach, I'm going to throw up."

Rosalie's voice drifts in from the living room. "Don't eat anything heavy yet. You won't want much in your stomach until after we reset your bones. Carlisle will be flying in tonight, and he'll be here by morning."

"How about some soup?" Bella offers. "I can make something for you."

He lets go of her hand in favor of wrapping both arms around her waist and tugging her close. "Don't you go anywhere. I want you right here with me."

"I'm not going anywhere," she reassures him. "The feeling's mutual."

Charlie chuckles. "You're going to have to let go eventually."

"Why?" Jacob whines. "So she can go back to school in the fall? Fine. I'll let her go in September."

She grins. "Consider us joined at the hip, dad."

Emmett snorts. "Joined at the hip? Joined at the cr... Oof!"

Simultaneously, Rachel tosses a balled up sock at him, and Leah slaps him upside the head. Behind them, Rosalie calls out, "Was that Leah? Thanks, hon. I can't reach him from here."

Cheerfully, Leah replies, "Me and Rach. We got your back, babe!"

Emmett complains, "They're ganging up on me!"

"That's okay, Emmett," Seth shakes his head. "Us guys'll back you up."

Billy shakes his head. "Those three girls against the ten of you boys? My money's on the girls."

"Three girls?" Rachel grins. "Four. We have Bella, who apparently has some hidden talents of her own."

Charlie adds, "Ouch, boys. I'd say the odds are not in your favor."

No one comments on the fact that Jasmine isn't included in the head count on either side. Bella looks around, but doesn't see her in the crowd.

Jared prompts, "Bella, you've got to tell us. What happened? How'd you find him? How'd you spirit walk, and how did you know where to go?"

She flushes as all eyes turn to her. "I don't know how I spirit walked."

"But it really wasn't the first time, was it?" Jacob interrupts. "It's the first time you did it consciously, but you've been coming to me in your dreams for, like, a year now. You found me in the spirit plane before I found you."

"I guess you're right."

"Is it because of, uh," Emmett gestures at his neck, indicating Jacob's mark on her. Charlie looks at him, perplexed, not realizing the possessive brands they have placed on each other's skin.

Bella gapes at him, trying to stop him before he can reveal any more to Charlie. He might be bothered by the marks even more than he would be by their more conventional sexual relationship. Rosalie rescues her. "There will be plenty of time to tell the story later. All that matters is that Jacob's back, and everyone's safe. But he's lost a lot of blood, only a fraction of which got replaced, he has a bunch of broken bones, and what's not broken is basically a giant bruise. You all need to let him rest."

Jacob and Bella look at her gratefully. Indeed, almost every inch of his body aches. But Bella's touch on his skin relieves most of the pain. One by one, each of them gives him a one-armed man hug or fist bump and files out of the house, off to their own families. Leah teases Seth for wrapping both his arms around Jacob and Bella, but she herself kisses the top of Jacob's head before she goes. Charlie retrieves a frozen container of Bella's chicken soup and warms it up for Jacob. He and Billy debate the merits of letting Bella stay with Jacob while he recovers as the microwave hums.

Billy nods in their direction through the wall. "I think we might need a crowbar to pry the kids apart tonight."

Charlie snorts. "A jackhammer probably wouldn't separate them. Anyway, he's pretty hurt. How much trouble could they possibly get into?"

Billy laughs. "Do you remember being their age? Or have you started to lose your memory, old man? When I was Bella's age..."

Charlie winces and cuts him off. "Damn it. Don't remind me. You were in that giant leg cast nine months before the twins were born, weren't you?"

Billy chuckles. "Yep. Got Sarah feeling all bad for me. Sort of milked it for everything it was worth."

Charlie shudders. "Shut up, man. That's my baby girl in there!"

"Your baby girl is cradlerobbing my boy! He's two years younger than she is."

An uncomfortable cough interrupts them. Startled, they turn to face Jasmine, who hovers in the doorway. "Hi." She shuffles her feet and points down the hall at Jacob's room. "I was hoping..."

Charlie and Billy look at each other. Billy grumbles at her, knowing that her hasty and thoughtless actions nearly got his son killed. "I'm not sure now's a good time."

But Charlie puts a hand on his shoulder. "But is there ever going to be a good time?"

Billy shrugs off his hand and turns his wheelchair away from Jasmine. "It's up to him, I suppose."

Jasmine nods uncomfortably and makes her way down the hall. It is only a few feet, but she drags her feet so slowly that it takes her two full minutes to get to his room.

The delay is pointless, of course. Jacob's enhanced hearing is too good for her to go undetected. Even Bella hears the squeak of the floorboards beneath her feet. While she stood on the porch outside the front door, she heard them murmuring words of love and comfort to one another, but they stop the moment she starts moving toward them.

When she enters the open doorway, grabbing the frame so hard her knuckles turn white, she sees Jacob curled up on the bed with his back to her. His head is pillowed in Bella's lap, and the other girl gently strokes his hair, his cheek, down his neck and shoulder, and along his arm. The sweeping, light motions still the tense vibrations of his body.

Jacob says nothing, but Jasmine knows he is fully aware of her presence. She doesn't know if she will only make things worse by speaking, so she just watches the motion of Bella's hand. Bella is the first to speak. "Thanks for donating your blood. Rose didn't think he'd make it otherwise. She was worried that normal human blood would be incompatible."

Jasmine is appalled. The last thing she deserves is thanks, and she knows it. "I didn't... I don't... I'm so sorry. But thank you, Bella, for finding us."

The silence in the room is deafening. Jacob's breathing grows heavy, angry, at her words. Very quietly, he answers, "I don't forgive you."

"Jacob!" Bella chides. She is almost as angry as he is, but his words surprise her nonetheless.

Jacob finally rolls over to glare at Jasmine, wincing at the movement in his poorly healed broken bones. Bella winces at the echo of his pain in her own body, and Jasmine understands. Jacob reaches out to grasp Bella's hand tightly. "No. I don't forgive her, and I don't forgive myself."

"Forgive yourself?" Bella furrows her brow in confusion.

"We hurt you. Don't tell me you didn't feel every lash, every cut, the snap of every bone. I know you did. I know you felt every single thing, and I'll never forgive her for putting you through that pain, or myself for putting you in that situation. I'm grateful, grateful like you'd never believe, that you saved me. That your heart kept mine alive, and that you came for me. For both of us. And I'm grateful to her for putting my body back together. But I'll never forgive either one of us for hurting you so very badly."

Bella tries to shush him. "Jake, it's not your fault!"

"Mine, hers, the filthy bloodsuckers, there's plenty of blame to go around. If I had been just a little faster, or ordered her to hold her position, if she hadn't interrupted me, if fucking Edward Cullen had never run to them in the first place, so many steps that brought us here. I swore to myself that I'd never hurt you, and look what I've done. Hurt you worse than anybody else ever has."

"No, Jake. You saved me. You saved me over and over. Pieced my broken heart together, made it stronger than it was before. Loved me like I never even imagined one person could love another. You've made me so happy, Jake. And we're here together, here and now, and that's all that matters."

Jasmine starts to back out of the room, thinking this is a private moment she isn't meant to share, a moment she doesn't want to witness. But Jacob stops her. "Don't. We're not done talking." Then he turns back to Bella. "It will always matter. What happens to you always matters. Every bad thing that ever happens to you is worse than anything that could happen to me. You're important. You're the most important one. But this time, our connection hurt you, and I won't forgive myself. I was so weak, Bella. I didn't spare a thought for you when he was beating me, other than to take comfort in the fact that you'd be okay. Even though you weren't. I know you felt everything. But I kept holding on to the thought that they didn't know you were still alive. That they weren't coming for you. That's all I thought about. Because if I let myself think about how much you were hurting every time he sliced into my skin, I'd have broken. I'd have spilled my guts. I'd have told them everything, handed them everything they needed to take us down, to decimate all of us. They wanted to enslave us or kill us all, and if I thought about how much you were hurting, I'd have handed over the whole pack. The whole tribe. And they'd have found you. I couldn't let it happen."

Tears well up in Bella's eyes listening to his misplaced guilt. "But you didn't, Jake. You did the right thing, and they're gone. They're ashes."

"But I was weak!" He points an accusing finger at Jasmine and growls, "He took a whip to her skin just once and I broke! I let them hurt you when they hurt me, and I just let it keep going and going. But the second he touched her I started talking. I let them hurt you, but not her, and I'm so sorry!"

Bella leans down and presses kisses all over his face and lips while he grasps desperately at her arms, never wanting to let her go. Jasmine watches them with tears in her eyes and finally speaks. "But you fed them lies! You didn't give anything away that they didn't already know, and you didn't say a single thing about Bella! You kept everyone safe, including me, and I didn't deserve it. Not at all."

Bella looks up at Jasmine, noting the tension in her body and the dried blood still covering her skin, then murmurs to Jacob, "You're the Alpha, Jake. Your responsibility is the whole pack, the whole tribe. Of course you couldn't let them hurt her. You care about her, about your family, about everyone. Why do you think I love you so much? It isn't just how you take care of me. It's how you take care of everyone. And don't get in a silly argument about who was hurt more. She didn't exactly escape unscathed. And if we're going to blame anyone, blame Edward and blame the Volturi. You killed all of them, Jake. You saved me from him, from Bree, from them, from myself when I was my own worst enemy. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead or turned. So don't you dare blame yourself."

Jasmine says in a shaking voice, "But it is my fault we were caught. It's my fault, and no one else's. If she was hurt because you were hurt, that's my fault. And the fact that you were hurt, well, I'll never forgive myself. You protected me even though I didn't deserve it."

Jacob crumples. "Everyone deserves protection. Just don't... don't expect anything more from me."

Tears begin to run down Jasmine's face. She can't hold them back. Her Alpha is rejecting her, her imprint despises her, and worst of all, she hates herself for what she did to both of them. "I know. I just needed to tell you that I'm sorry, and I'm going to do my best to leave you both alone. I know I'm not good for you, and I... and I..."

"Just go." Jacob turns his back to her.

Jasmine stumbles out of the room, not bothering to acknowledge Billy or Charlie in the kitchen, and out the front door. She nearly falls off the front porch, but strong arms catch her. "Whoa, whoa there." She sniffs and looks into Quil's concerned eyes. "You okay?"

Jasmine sniffs and brushes the tears off her face. "I, uh, I..."

But the door opens and closes behind her. "Hey, Quil."

"Hey, Bella. I know I'm supposed to let Jake rest. I just wanted to give him a little update and then get out of your hair."

"Go on in. I'll be there in a minute. I wanted to talk to Jasmine for a second anyway."

"Okay." Quil bends down and looks her right in the eye. "Don't go anywhere without me, okay? I'll be right out."

Jasmine nods at him with no intention of staying a second longer than she has to. But Bella wants to speak with her, and she owes her that much. She doesn't move, but Bella walks to her side and sits down on the edge of the porch, gesturing for Jasmine to sit with her. She offers a tissue, and Jasmine takes it reluctantly and sits down. "I don't know what to say," she admits.

Bella nods and stares into the woods. "I know. It's okay. Just listen." She takes a deep breath and swallows hard. "He didn't really mean it."

"Yes, he did," Jasmine whispers. "He isn't going to forgive me."

"Yes, he will. Just give him some time. Maybe wait until his injuries are healed before apologizing again? Or better yet, don't bring it up again."

"He might forgive me for getting him hurt. He won't forgive me for hurting you. Which is fine. Neither should you. I really don't deserve it. I was so fucking stupid."

"Well, I've done some pretty stupid things in my time. Things that hurt me, and things that hurt him. And when I hurt him, I did it knowingly, unlike what you did, which was accidental. So in that way, what I did was so much worse. So I'm not going to judge you. You pretty well got your punishment already, I think, worse than you possibly could have deserved. And you're going to judge yourself more harshly than anyone else. He'll figure that out after he heals up."

Jasmine frowns. "We're just going to have to agree to disagree, then."

Bella nervously swipes her palms on the fabric over her knees. "Uh, yeah. That's not exactly why I'm out here."

Jasmine cocks a brow at her. "Then why are you here? If you're not here to yell at me, are you trying to make me feel better? 'Cause, well, why? We're not exactly best friends."

"I wanted to say... I just..." Bella doesn't know how to proceed. "Look, the imprint, it's not good for either of you." Jasmine crumples. She knows this, but it hasn't been laid so plain for her to see until now. Bella continues, "I don't know much about the tribal lore surrounding the imprints, but I do know what I've seen. It changes you. Sometimes for the better, like Paul. I think that what happened between him and Rachel? It's what it's supposed to be. The way the legends tell it. That the imprint brings something good to the wolf and to the man, and that he's good for her too, and they just make this ideal match. And probably pups. She has Alpha blood, he's a strong pack member. So that's the good version, because they went about it the right way. It made them see each other, but they fell in love for real. Or Kim and Jared. They just make each other happy, period. And he'll probably stay here, in La Push, for good. So good for the pack and good for the tribe. But it's not always so good, right? You're friends with Quil. He's great with Claire, but she's already got two wonderful parents who love her. Does she really need him? I don't see how. Not yet. And he doesn't want to help raise the girl he's going to marry. He's not some Woody Allen creep, you know? And you've seen what imprinting did to Sam and Leah and Emily. It destroyed two good relationships, and the one that resulted, well, isn't exactly all roses and sunshine, is it? Plus, it stopped Sam from going to college like he wanted, and Leah almost didn't go either. And then..."

"Me," Jasmine answers bitterly, tears brimming in her eyes. "You think I don't know that? You think I don't know I'm no good for him? If it wasn't patently obvious before, it sure is now. I get it, okay? I get that I'm not good for him."

"Not that," Bella answers gently. "Is he good for you? Try to think about it objectively. Is he really any good for you? Does he make you a better person? Does he make you happy? Does he fulfill you in some way that no one else does? I know he does for me. Before Jacob, I let my fears rule me. My entire self worth was based on whether or not some guy, a destructive, psychopathic monster, loved me or not. When I was with Edward, he became my whole world. And not in a good way. I was ready to abandon my parents, my friends, my future, every plan I had to go to school and contribute to society. I was ready to become a monster, a murderer, for the guarantee that he offered. He'd love me forever, because vampires, they don't change. They fall in love once, and then never again. He could give me that, and power and strength and immortality, and I was willing to throw away everything that actually mattered. I would turn my back on my parents who raised me, Jacob who was a better friend to me than anyone had ever been, willing to risk the thirst of becoming a monster, give up all of my humanity, maybe murder other human beings. My judgement was completely screwed up. I was willing to hurt every other person who ever meant anything to me just to have him and the superficial trappings of the existence he offered."

"Because he loved you, and you loved him," Jasmine says.

"No." Bella slides off the porch and kneels down in front of Jasmine. "Now I know better. Now I know what love is supposed to feel like, because Jacob showed me. What Edward felt for me wasn't love, it was obsession. And that's what I felt for him too. Jacob once said to me that he was a drug to me, and he was right. Edward himself even told me I was a drug to him. He said he loved me, sure he did. But he didn't know the meaning of the word, and neither did I. Love isn't always easy, but it was never supposed to be as hard as it was with Edward. Jacob's love has made me a better person. I'm stronger. I'm a better daughter to my parents, a better friend. I've found strengths I never knew I had. For once, I helped the pack find Jacob instead of being the victim who needed rescuing. That's what being in love with Jacob has meant for me." Bella urges her, "What has the imprint meant for you? Not for him, for you?"

Jasmine feels it like a rock in her stomach. Her tears fall. Bella is right. Her imprint isn't love, but destruction. Her focus, her drive, her good judgement, her aspirations, all of them have been twisted in the face of the imprint. She is ready to drop all of her own goals to go to college, to travel, to become her own person, all to trail after Jacob, who doesn't even want her. Her grades have dropped, her senses somehow dulled, her focus all pointed toward him. She has neglected all of her own relationships, save the ones in the pack. The imprint not only hurt Jacob, it hurt her. "It's no good for me," she whispers. "But what do I do?"

"I don't know," Bella admits. "But Jacob can't break your side of the imprint for you. I think you have to do it yourself."

"If that was possible, wouldn't we know it? Wouldn't Sam have done it? He was so in love with Leah when he imprinted on Emily. He would have found a way, wouldn't he? But he didn't."

Bella shakes her head. "I don't think he even tried, Jasmine. He did what he was told and tried to love Emily. He didn't look for a way to stay with Leah, and he regrets it now."

"But they say it can't be broken. They say it can't be done. Sam can't be the first wolf, I can't be the first wolf, to want to break an imprint. Someone must have wanted to. In all the generations of wolves, wouldn't someone have done it if they could?"

"I don't know." Bella looks into the sky, searching for their spirit guardian. "Maybe someone else knows how?"

Jasmine swipes tears from her eyes just as Quil comes out behind them. He hops off the porch before turning back and looking at her with concern. "Hey, hey there." He opens his arms and draws her in for a gentle hug. "You guys have both had a really rough few days. How 'bout I walk you home?" He nods at the door as he looks at Bella. "He didn't say so, but I know he wants you back in there."

She stands. "I want to be back in there too." And then, more softly to Jasmine, she says, "He's just mad right now. He'll calm down, and he is going to forgive you. Get some rest, okay?"

She returns inside, turning her back so that she doesn't notice Jasmine and Quil leaning on each other as they walk away.

Bella passes their fathers in the living room and finds Jacob leaning heavily on his dresser. "What are you doing? Get back in bed!"

"I'm starving, Bells. And I got the smell of kerosene and burnt leech all over the sheets. Thanks for cleaning me up. Uh, that was you, right? I'm less filthy than I thought I was going to be, but I still need a shower."

She tucks herself under his arm to support him. "I don't think I exactly smell like a flower myself. Why don't I help you get cleaned up, and then I'll change the sheets? Do you want to do that before or after you have your soup?"

"The smells on me are making me nauseated."

She sniffs him in an exaggerated fashion and quips, "You are a little ripe, aren't you?" He scowls until he notices the way her lips are turned up. "How 'bout a little ginger ale now, to settle your stomach, then a shower, then soup."

"And then we'll sleep for two or three days straight?"

"Make it four, and you've got a deal."

As they make their way to the kitchen, a smile spreads across her face. "Then when we wake up, we'll go bikini shopping like we were supposed to do on Friday."

"Ooh! In that case, set the alarm for 7 AM tomorrow morning!" he teases.

After she pours a glass of ginger ale and brings it to him at the table, he tries to tug her into his lap. "Oof." He winces as she lands on him. "Okay, that was stupid."

She slides off him and bends down. "Aw, tell me where it hurts, baby," she croons.

He points to the middle of his chest, and she presses a kiss there. He doesn't have to pretend that it helps. A lovely tingle settles where her lips landed. He points to his ribs, and she drops another kiss on his skin. He holds out his arm, and she pecks her way up the limb and all the way to his lips, which smile against her. "Better?" she asks as she pulls away.

"Yeah, but I'm still sore." There is a bright glint in his eye.

She smirks, knowing what's coming. She lowers her voice. "Where else do you need a kiss?"

"It really hurts right here." He leers at her and motions at his crotch, and she snorts with laughter.

"That's how I know you're going to be okay," she teases.

He nods somberly. "You're right, Bells. Break every bone in my body, and I'll get through it. But if this muscle stops working, put me out of my misery, okay?"

She snickers and makes him drink his ginger ale. Then she takes him back to the bathroom, where she finds herself in the strange and awkward position of helping him bathe with both their fathers only feet away. Neither one of them tries to take on the task themselves, nor do they expect Jacob to do it on his own. They both see how unsteady and uncomfortable he is walking down the hall. But for Charlie's sake, Jacob keeps a towel in his lap while seated on his father's shower chair, and they leave the door cracked open. They keep their conversation businesslike as Bella massages Jacob's skin with a soapy cloth.

He explains that Rosalie and Emmett offered to patrol, allowing the exhausted wolves to finally sleep. Bella wonders who they're patrolling against, and Jacob shrugs and admits that the past year has taught him to keep his guard up at all times. The Volturi might be dead, but there are plenty of vampires left in the world to wreak havoc, and it would be just his luck for some of them to stumble across La Push while the pack is still trying to recover. He sighs and wearily explains that two have left the reservation for the night. Sam and Embry are looking for their taxilits, who have not been seen since they were injured in battle. He believes that his eagle left for the same purpose.

After dressing him in a soft cotton tee shirt and basketball shorts, Bella sets him in front of a steaming mixing bowl of chicken soup and leaves to switch the sheets on the bed, and for her own shower. When she finishes and opens the door, she is only a little surprised to find Jacob leaning against the opposite wall in the hallway. He admits sheepishly, "I didn't want to be so far apart. I'd have joined you if our dads weren't on the other side of the wall."

She takes his hand and leads him back to bed. They both fall asleep so quickly that neither of them hears Charlie calling out that he wants them to keep the door open again. A few minutes later, they don't wake up when their fathers peer into the room.

Billy snorts at the sight of his son passed out with his mouth agape and body boneless. "I don't think there's going to be any hanky panky going on in here tonight. Most exciting thing that will happen is that my kid might choke on his own drool."

Charlie smiles and tilts his head, taking in the sight. "You remember the time they fell asleep together after that long day at the beach? They exhausted themselves running up and down in the sand. Jake wanted to surf, but he was, what, four? Five?"

"Oh yeah! He convinced her they could use an old plank they found washed up on the shore as a board. He tried to get her onto the thing and push her out. Almost drowned them both, remember? I wanted to send him to his room alone for being so dumb..."

Charlie interrupts, "But he felt so bad that he almost got her hurt that we all knew he'd beat himself up more than any of the rest of us could. When he dunked her, I thought he was gonna cry. Didn't, though. And I stopped you from separating them that day, didn't I?"

Billy nods. "Yeah. The twins couldn't figure out if they were mad that he hadn't gotten punished, or dying with laughter over how they wiped out."

"And when we finally got them back home and dry, they passed right out on the bed. Just like that. I think maybe even in the same position, yeah?"

Billy chuckles. "Only Jake's bed was smaller then. And, you know, Jake was a fraction of the size he is now. But your daughter, well, she's only grown a couple inches since then."

Charlie snorts. "She's not that short, Bill. She just looks like a midget standing next to your freakishly giant kid."

"I'll have to get her a box to stand on if they're going to stick together."

"Just get her a ladder. He'll carry it around for her."

"If he doesn't just pick her up and carry her."

Charlie nudges Billy. "All the way to the altar and back, huh?"

"What makes you think they're getting married?" Billy smirks.

"I dunno. That ring on her hand looks kind of familiar."

"You think?"

"What'd he call it? A promise ring?"

Billy snorts. "That's not what I called it when I gave it to Sarah."

"She'd have dumped your sorry ass if you'd have called it a promise ring."

"'Course, I wasn't sixteen when I gave it to her. If I'd asked her then, she definitely would have dumped me."

"Nah. She'd have loved it. But her dad would have murdered you."

"And yet, you didn't even draw your service weapon when Jake have it to your daughter."

"I was feeling generous, seeing as he was trying to stop those vampires from dragging her away. I had to wait until after he took care of the problem."

"And this time it was her turn. They make a good team."

"She could stand to grow a couple inches, though." Billy starts to roll away. "She'll need that ladder to stand on if she wants to give him a kiss at their wedding."

Charlie follows. "Says the man who's now three feet tall. She's averaged-sized. It's your kid that's a mutant. He should just kneel when they get married. He'll still be taller than Bella."

"Oh, ha ha. One of these days I'll get some fancy-ass paraplegic brace, and I'll be three inches taller than you again."

"You'll be a veritable bionic man." Charlie opens the refrigerator. "But until then, if you want another beer, you're going to have to pay me to get it down for you. They got shoved to the back of the top shelf of the fridge."

"After the last few days, I need something a hell of a lot stronger than beer." Billy rolls to the liquor cabinet and retrieves a bottle of scotch.

"Oh, pour me a double. Hell. Just fill up this entire mug. We should just lock the kids in that room and not let them out for a year. Any chance that'll keep 'em out of trouble?"

Billy laughs loudly. "Only if you don't mind if they come out of that room in a year with a baby." Charlie shudders.

In said bedroom, Jacob unconsciously tightens his arms around Bella. For the first time in days, their rest is peaceful.

_And in the little red house, Bella exits Jacob's bedroom to the sound of laughter. There are several voices. The first is deep, joyful, and true. It is the sound of home. Her Jacob. The second is just as familiar, just a few tones higher. Her father is as pleased as he has ever been. The third is usually complex and rich. She has heard it float over the fire as he tells his tribe's histories, heard it indulgently offer her a treat when she was a child, and now muttering nonsense words in an absurdly high pitch. Then the next. A new voice, but as precious as any other. A gurgling sound that is probably supposed to be laughter. And the last, a high pitched squeal of glee. _

_She pauses in the hallway right before rounding the corner to the living room. She closes her eyes and lets the sound wash over her. It is the pure sound of joy. _

_And then a soft projectile slams into her legs and wraps itself around her waist. "Mama! Mama! Help me! Help me!" A little dark-skinned boy with shining brown eyes, chubby cheeks, and full lips is squealing at her a familiar grin. _

_His daddy appears behind him as the boy tries to bodily climb up her body and into the safety of her arms. His hands are open, but his fingers clenched like claws, his stance wide as he leans over them, his teeth bared as he growls. "The tickle monster's gonna get you! You can't escape! The tickle monster shows no mercy!"_

_As Bella picks up her son, Jacob slams into both of them, sandwiching the little boy between them. "Now I've got you both trapped!" He hugs them tightly before attacking the squirming boy with wiggling fingers as he screams with laughter. When he stops, he kisses them both affectionately. _

_"I love this trap," Bella murmurs. _

_"Me too. We're missing someone, though."_

_Muffled between his parents, their son says, "Sissy too little for squishes."_

_"You're right, sweetheart," Bella steps back and sets him down. "But nobody's too little for kisses, right?"_

_He sprints off, and Jacob takes her hand and pulls her into the living room. Billy is gazing down at his tiny new granddaughter with awe, and her big brother is pressing a kiss to the top of her head._

Asleep in his bed, both Jacob and Bella smile unconsciously and pull each other closer. Bella remains curled around Jacob for fourteen hours straight as they dream of their shared future. It might not look like this, exactly, but each knows that with the other by their side, it will be filled with joy.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: Thanks again to my beta, Babs81410. If you've enjoyed the story, think about heading over to the Non-Canon Awards to vote for it, or better yet, to check out better stories. There's just one chapter left.


	42. Chapter 41 (Fin)

X-x-x-x-X

June 9

X-x-x-x-X

The next day, they wake to quiet voices in the living room. Bella recognizes Leah's voice, but she can't hear what she is saying. But she sounds somber, that much she knows.

Jacob's fingers grip her waist tightly.

"Good morning, big spoon," she murmurs.

He smiles into her hair, but she can feel tension in his body against hers. "Good morning, little spoon."

"What's wrong?"

"Some bad news. The black bear didn't make it. Sam's staying with the body."

Bella shrinks into him. "Oh, no. What about Embry's?"

"Injured, but alive. Embry stayed with it, from what I gather, and the eagle. Sam's lost some of his ability to communicate with animals. It probably was like he said. It must have been sort of a translator for him. We should get up, Bells. I need to talk with them."

They enter the living room hand, Jacob leaning on Bella. Leah, Sue, and Old Quil are there with Billy. Leah smiles sadly at them. "Hey, boss. Morning, Bella."

"Hey. I filled her in."

"Not great news."

Old Quil nods a greeting. "We should arrange a burial. A traditional one on the island."

Leah's eyes widen. "I've never seen a full traditional burial."

"None of you have, have you? I don't think any of you were even born the last time we had a burial on A-ka-lat. It's time, then. If it has ever been time, it is now."

Billy considers, "Is there time to build a burial canoe?"

"Of course not. We will have to use the one on display in the tribal center."

Sue protests, "That's irreplaceable!"

Calmly, Old Quil answers, "More easily replaced than the taxilit, who I imagine was hundreds of years older than the canoe. We will build another canoe. My old hands may have arthritis, but they aren't useless, you know."

"We'll help," Jacob reassures him. He won't even have to ask his pack. "And we'll help you perform the ceremony."

Billy is worried about his son. "It's six days long. I don't know if you're up to it."

Old Quil shakes his head. "He's the Alpha and the next chief. He needs to be there. But it will take at least a couple days to prepare, and Jacob can forgo the fast and the phasing. The longhouse has probably fallen into disrepair. Perhaps a couple of the boys can fix it up first while Jacob is healing. And you'll be coming with us too, of course."

"Dr. Cullen will be here in an hour or two," Sue adds. "He'll want to examine Jacob when he gets here."

"We'll work around it," Old Quil resolves.

Bella helps Jacob out of the room to change and eat a light breakfast, and soon Carlisle and Rosalie arrive. Jacob looks nervous, and Bella eventually realizes why. Not only is he not looking forward to having his bones re-broken, but he is particularly concerned that Bella will feel it.

His worries are well-founded, but after caring for multiple members of the pack, the doctor is better prepared. In one hand, he bears a large box which bears a striking resemblance to the toolkit in Jacob's garage. Bella refuses to leave Jacob's side as Carlisle prods gently at all four of his limbs and runs his fingers along Jacob's ribs. She can't look when Rosalie inserts a small catheter into Jacob's arm, but when Carlisle pulls a massive syringe out of his kit and draws up three full vials of medication, she can't help but see it out of the corner of her eye.

Nervously, Jacob asks, "Think you got enough there, doc?"

"Fentanyl and versed, Jacob. A heavy sedative and narcotic. For both your sakes. Elephant dosing should do it, I think."

And once Jacob is snoring, Bella hardly cares whether she feels Carlisle's treatment or not. So long as Jacob experiences no pain, she is content. Then she confirms with relief that she feels only the slightest twinge when Carlisle deftly snaps and resets each of Jacob's broken bones. Soon, she is utterly relaxed and boneless leaning against the wall with his head in her lap. She runs her fingers through his thick hair, dragging her nails along his scalp in a way she knows would drive him wild were he awake to feel it. By the time Rosalie has each splint in place, Bella has nodded off, and Carlisle gently rearranges her in a more comfortable position at Jacob's side.

Three hours later, the sound of laughter pulls her out of her sleep.

"Did you know that you snore?" Leah asks.

"Me?" Jacob mumbles. "I s'pose. Don't hear myself sleep."

"Not you. Your girlfriend."

"It's the sedative," Bella protests weakly.

Rosalie denies this. "We sedated him, not you. You just fell asleep because you're tired. So don't blame the drugs."

"Fine," she huffs. "If we're so tired, why'd you wake us up?"

The smile leaves Leah's voice. "Someone is asking for you."

Bella runs her fingers through her hair to tame it while Jacob sits up stiffly in bed. He hobbles out of the room supported by her under his left arm and Leah under his right. They make their way outside and into the woods, finding the clearing where Jasmine used to sleep. But instead of her small orange wolf, they see Sam's huge black one sitting on his haunches, head bent in mourning over the still form of the black bear. The eagle watches over both of them from a low branch.

Jacob isn't surprised to hear Taha Aki's deep voice in his mind, but Bella looks up at the bird at the same moment, and he realizes immediately that they can both hear. _He was the youngest son of my youngest son._

_I'm so sorry! _Despite her own recent aspirations of immortality, Bella can hardly imagine the grief the ancient spirit must feel. He has spent generation after generation watching over his descendants, but most of his direct family members are long gone. It must have been a comfort to keep some of them close.

Jacob is used to hearing the rest of the pack in his brain, but never Bella, and only while in wolf form. He speaks with his voice. "Bells? Was that you? I could hear you!"

_You are always connected, _the eagle explains, _but right now you can speak through my mind._

Jacob looks over at Sam, who has lifted his head enough to look at them. He is silent in his sadness, but Jacob knows he is present in their mental conversation as well. Leah, who possesses no talent for speaking with animals in her human form, just looks between them without comprehension. Jacob takes a moment to fill her in, and she moves into the trees to shift into her wolf body so she can join. Jacob continues, _We are sorry about your grandson. We will give him a proper burial._

_It is right. His father and his own sons rest on the island. He led a life far longer than most, and he died doing what was most important to him: protecting his own. Young Samuel is of his line._

Bella asks, _And that is why you are here? To protect your family?_

There is a long silence, and he responds, _After my mate was gone, I could no longer live with my memories of how she died. I escaped into my wolf. But the grief of my pack was too much to bear. I left behind the wolf forever and gave myself over to flight. But I could not forever abandon my sons, my daughters, my grandchildren. And over the years, some of them have joined me this way. The falcon was the fifth, and the first woman in our family to shift, but not the last._

Leah is amazed. _So Jasmine and I aren't the only ones? Not the first wolves?_

_You were the first wolf, daughter, but not the first shifter. The tribe has never needed so many warriors before, so my daughters who shifted before you took other shapes. Birds could range far and wide, watch for threats or gather information about other tribes. A dolphin or porpoise could tell us about the world beneath the water, herd schools of fish toward our fishermen. But the threat of the Cold Ones had never been so dire. I suspect that is why you became the wolf._

_Why haven't we heard these stories before? _Leah wants to know.

_No one has shifted into a form other than wolf for hundreds of years, and the stories were lost. Many of our stories have been lost. And those of us who are left to remember..._

Sam finally speaks up. _It's too painful._

_The few of us who remain are much more animal than man. Were it not for the grave threat that led you to seek us out, most of us would still be lost in our animal selves. I had almost forgotten myself until the coven with the strange eyes reappeared. _

Jacob asks, _Are there more of you? More than the few we have met?_

_There are. You might find them if you looked. Or your pack would. But enough questions for now. I am here for my grandson. I will stay with him until he rests on A-ka-lat._

Jacob and Bella retreat back into the house. When Bella glances back at the unusual group huddled over the still form of the bear, she sees that Sam still hasn't moved. But when Leah returns to his side in human form and sits beside him, one hand buried in the fur of his back, he relaxes visibly.

X-x-x-x-X

June 12

X-x-x-x-X

It takes three days for Seth, Embry, and Jared to repair the longhouse on James Island, and at dusk on the third night, the remainder of the pack rows there. Old Quil and Billy join them using a borrowed sport fishing boat. Bella sits on the shore and watches them depart before climbing into her truck and driving to the Cullen mansion, where Charlie meets her. They enjoy a lavish meal prepared by Esme, and Bella catches up with Alice. The family hasn't decided where to settle next. Carlisle explains that although the Romanian and Egyptian covens had united briefly to overthrow the Volturi, Aro revealed that Stefan and Vladimir were responsible for the death of Benjamin's mate. He had immediately taken both their lives. Aro was delighted until his was ended as well.

Charlie asks, "So the Egyptian coven is in charge now?"

Carlisle shakes his head. "It isn't clear who is in charge. So perhaps no one. Amun, Benjamin's creator, has always wanted to rule. But he cannot do it without Benjamin's power to back him up. And Benjamin is undergoing a change of heart."

"In what way?" Bella asks.

"The loss of his mate changed him," Esme explains. "His rage fueled his revenge, but now that he has that, he plans to adopt our lifestyle."

Charlie doesn't understand. "What do you mean? Why would that matter?"

"It taught him empathy," Jasper interjects. "After he lost Tia, he understood the pain that he was inflicting on the families of those he hunted. He had forgotten, you see. Our memories of our human lives are so dim, so distant, that he had forgotten what it was like. It makes it much easier to hunt and murder if you don't remember what it is like to be alive. Benjamin has a glimpse now that he has seen mortality. He intends to eat animals from now on."

Carlisle nods. "We will see if the resolution lasts, but if he decides to rule, it could have far reaching consequences. His abilities make him one of the most powerful vampires on earth."

Charlie folds his arms across his chest and leans back in his chair. "I don't know that humanity can count on the whims of one powerful vampire. I can't believe you all have managed to go undetected for this long. And in this age of mass media."

Alice retorts, "It just goes to show you how powerful the Volturi were. They might have had questionable methods, but they managed to keep the secret for hundreds of years."

"Questionable methods?" Charlie snorts. "You say that as if their goal was an honorable one. People should know. We should have the chance to defend ourselves."

Carlisle's eyebrows rise. "I suppose it is actually a possibility now. When I was young, the only chance a human would have to defend themselves against a vampire would be to align with another vampire for protection. Unless they were one of the Quileute shifters, that is. But I've seen no other natural defense."

"But Caius came up with some kind of metal alloy that could pierce a vampire's skin," Charlie responds. "Think about it. If you could make a bullet of that stuff, all you'd need to do it get one hit, anywhere on the body, and then give a blast with fire. I'm not suggesting that we start letting civilians carry flamethrowers, but the military? The national guard? My police force? We should have some way to defend the populace."

Carlisle's mouth drops open. "What are you suggesting?"

"I'm suggesting that I take this information public."

"Excuse me?"

Charlie leans over the dining room table. "I'm a father who almost lost a daughter, Carlisle. I'm a cop who has lost members of his own community to monsters' thirst, and the only way I can defend the people of this town is to ask a group of children, _children_ Carlisle, to put their own lives on the line. Jake isn't old enough to be drafted into the US army, not old enough to drink a beer or vote, but he put his body on the line, no weapon in hand, to fight an immortal creature to the death. Far as I can tell, that group of kids, my friends' children, aren't just the front line on the battle. They're the entire army. And there might be a way to get him backup, to get him protection, and you're suggesting I don't help him?"

Stunned silence fills the room.

Charlie continues, "I know you hate the thought of violence against any creature, doc. I know you can't stand the idea of one of your species being hunted or hurt because of their natural thirst. But I also know you've dedicated your entire life to helping people. I know you have a sense of right and wrong, and that's why you live the way you do and raise your family to do the same. Do you think it's wrong for the courts to put a human on trial for killing another human?"

"Of course not!"

"So why shouldn't the courts be able to do that when a vampire kills a human?" No one in the room has any valid retort, so Charlie just continues. "Can you really stand by and let thousands of innocent people die because they never knew about the threat that was out there against them? Do you think I can do that?"

Esme finally speaks up. "Chief Swan, just because the Volturi are gone, it doesn't mean you'll be safe if you go public. If you succeed at spreading the word, at convincing the populace that we exist, someone will come after you. There will be plenty of angry vampires who can't wait to drain you."

"It's a good thing he'll have protection, then," Emmett grins from the opposite corner. He winks at Rosalie, who smirks, folds her arms over her chest, and leans back in her chair.

"If people know about us, will we be safe?" Alice asks.

"I imagine there'd be a lot of backlash, of course," Charlie looks at her. He points at her face. "But your eyes are like a sign across your forehead that say you haven't eaten anyone lately. I'd imagine that would help. But one way or another, as much as I respect all of you, I can't weigh the possibility of saving hundreds, thousands of human lives, against the inconvenience it would pose to 'vegetarian' vampires, and come up on your side."

"Well, then." Carlisle sighs. "It would appear you've put a lot of thought into this already. I have to admit that the idea makes me incredibly nervous. But more than the risk it would pose to you personally, or to us, I worry about the risk to your family. I can't help but think you would start a war."

"Frankly, I didn't come tonight to ask your permission. But I would appreciate your support, although you did just hit on my only real reservation. Keeping my mouth shut is probably the safest thing to do for all of us. I know you'll probably want to talk for a while, so I think maybe Bella and I will get going. Just one thing, though, whatever she and I decide to do, we're going to try to leave the pack out of it as best as possible. Those kids have had enough already. The last thing I want to do is bring more angry vampires to La Push."

"Of course," Esme smiles at both of them, but she clearly looks nervous.

Bella and Charlie stand to leave. After the front door closes behind them, Charlie says, "Sorry to spring that on you like that. I meant to talk to you sooner, but you've been at the Blacks' basically nonstop."

"That's okay. Does Billy know what you're thinking?"

"Yeah. And Sue. We've been talking. They've got mixed feelings. I don't think the tribe wants to get themselves any press, doesn't want their kids' lives disrupted any more than they already have been. And they're worried that attracting any attention to the area will draw a spotlight on them. Get the pack in the line of fire again. But they'd sure like it if they could call the police for a vampire threat instead of pulling their kids out of school to fight, you know?"

"Sure," Bella answers, not knowing what else to say. But it is pretty difficult to deny any of Charlie's arguments.

Bella climbs into the cab of her truck, and on the way home keeps glancing in her rearview mirror, getting brief glimpses of her father's face illuminated by the streetlights. After moving back to Forks and meeting Edward Cullen, she felt as if she was living in a different world than everyone else. But Charlie has joined her here, and Jacob. Perhaps everyone else will now as well.

X-x-x-x-X

June 18

X-x-x-x-X

Without school, the pack, or Jake to fill her time, Bella picks up a few shifts at Newton's and spends quite a bit of time at the Cullen home. Charlie joins Sue for a couple dinners, as her house feels empty without her children. As Bella watches him leave the house one evening for La Push, she spots a small smile on his face when he doesn't think she is looking, and she wonders if he has been faking ineptitude in the kitchen with the intent of secondary gain. Either way, his absence allows her to disappear to the Cullen home without guilt.

She, Alice, and Rosalie discuss Charlie's desire to make known the existence of vampires. Emmett and Rosalie are in full agreement, and have even volunteered themselves as his indisputable proof. Alice and Esme are more worried about the consequences. Alice spends hours searching the futures of various individuals she knows, both human and vampire. She sees some indisputably positive outcomes, such as Lauren Mallory saving her own life by avoiding the advances of a handsome male vampire whose intentions are far from pure, but for each of these, she gets a flash of something that worries her. Rosalie would get kicked out of medical school, and it might be years before Carlisle can get another job.

Rosalie just snorts and says that if she and Carlisle want to save lives, they will do far better by stemming the tide of vampires eating humans than they will by practicing medicine. Alice retorts that she sees one possible future in which their house gets burned down, and Emmett gleefully asks if an angry mob of villagers will show up at the doorstep with pitchforks and torches. Rosalie only wants to know if they themselves are ashes along with the remnants of their house, and when Alice says they are not, just shrugs and said she wouldn't mind shopping for a new house anyway.

Bella is torn. She fully believes that her father wants to do the just and right thing, but cannot help but worry, as Carlisle expressed, that doing so would put him in harm's way. And if he is in danger, there is no way the pack would leave him unprotected, putting Jacob at risk once more. But if he succeeds in arming the police force against dangerous vampires, the pack would no longer be alone in their battles.

Eventually, Bella's human limitations of fatigue eventually tear her away from the debate. She returns to her own bed and her dreams of Jacob and the little red house.

By the next week, she is more than ready to have Jacob back in her arms instead of her dreams. When she arrives at the canoe livery, Connie Littlesea and Tiffany Call are already there. Emily and Kim join them a few minutes after Bella arrives. Bella greets the other girls. Emily asks after Jacob. She had heard a little about his ordeal, but Bella doesn't have the stomach to revisit it in any detail. Kim kindly changes the subject. She will enroll at Peninsula in the fall and asks Bella for advice about courses and instructors until they see the first canoe approaching. Brady and Collin are the first on the dock, and they eagerly trail after Connie who promises them a huge meal waiting in her kitchen. Next, Jared gets whisked off by Kim, while Paul stows away their canoe. Bella sees Emily's face fall as Sam's canoe makes its way up the river, and she realizes that Leah shares his canoe. But Sam's face hardens at the same time that Bella hears the slam of two car doors behind her, then the pattering of little feet.

Sophia sprints by, rapidly escaping the arms of her father. She almost knocks Leah into the river when she jumps at her yelling, "Puppy! Want Puppy!"

Leah picks up the squealing baby girl and tosses her high in the air, her surprised grin creating rarely-seen dimples in her cheeks that match Sophia's. "Hey, sweetheart! What are you guys doing here?"

Miguel's smile is broad. "She couldn't wait any longer to see you again. I hope you don't mind."

Leah sends a fake pout at her mother. "I love seeing you guys, but maybe somebody should have given me the chance to shower first. I haven't had a real bath in days! I'm a disaster!"

Paul calls out, "We saw you skinny dipping this morning, Lee! You're sparkling fresh!"

She covers Sophia's ears with her hands. "Jackass! Were you watching me?" she sputters.

"You know, I think she can still hear you cussing. And just because I've got a girlfriend, doesn't mean I've gone blind. You can't strip off your skivvies and expect no one to notice."

"You guys were on the other side of the rocks!"

Jacob and Embry tug their canoe out of the water. "Most of us were on the other side of the rocks," Embry adds dryly.

Paul drapes his arm across Miguel's shoulders. "You're a lucky man. Your girlfriend is living hotness."

Miguel wrinkles his nose and pushes Paul's arm off. "You should have joined her in the water, man. You're absolutely rank. What's the rule, anyway? Look but don't touch, Lee? Or is it that you'll tear out Paul's eyes for looking, too?"

"That seems a little drastic," she answers with a little smile on her face.

"Not to me," Sue frowns and pokes Paul in the arm. "If I didn't know that Rachel Black has you in line, I'd take you to task for ogling my little girl."

Seth pulls up with Jasmine and helps her out of the canoe. "It's okay, mom. Leah can kick his ass herself. But I'm happy to help if she'd like it." He carefully sidesteps Sam, who has his hands on his hips and is staring at the weathered planking on the deck. But his eyes glaze over when Emily touches his arm, and she pulls him to her car. But after he opens the passenger door for Emily and shuts it behind her, he turns and stares intently at Leah with an inscrutable expression. Leah frees one of her hands from the baby's grip to make a gesture of a phone held to her ear. He nods in relief and climbs into his car.

Jacob distracts Bella from gawking at them when he wraps her up in a hug, tugging her off her feet and twirling her in circles. "Hey, honey," he murmurs into her neck.

Bella presses a kiss onto the mark on his collarbone before squeezing him as hard as she can. "I missed you," she whispers. "Six days is too long. I want a new rule. Ten hours max."

"Make it eight and you've got a deal," he chuckles and sets her back on her feet. When she turns around, Jasmine is nowhere in sight.

As the pack disperses, Leah sprints off to chase the shockingly fast Sophia through the parking lot, pretending to be unable to catch her while the baby laughs. Jacob gracefully sweeps Bella off her feet when she nearly trips over the zig-zagging child. Bella asks, "Is your dad at the Marina?"

"Yeah. Quil drove the boat. He's got Old Quil, too. So there's no one to stop me from doing this." Then he presses her to the cab and bends over her for a kiss. It starts off sweet and soft, his mouth exploring hers as if they have all the time in the world. His large hands run down her sides and settle on her hips, squeezing possessively, and she buries her fingers in his hair. Something about the way she tugs on his scalp makes Jacob growl, and he begins to nip at her full bottom lip with his teeth. She moans aloud and tries to pull him even closer, but the sound of snickering behind him stops them.

Jacob reluctantly separates from her and looks over his shoulder at Leah, who has caught Sophia and is holding her hand over her eyes. "You horny pervs! Take it inside where there are no children watching," she laughs.

"Hoe-nee pewv!" Sophia mimics, looking terribly pleased with herself. Leah's face shifts to frank mortification as everyone in earshot dissolves with laughter. She looks sheepishly at Miguel, who is laughing the hardest.

"I'm really sorry!" Leah apologizes and tries to hand Sophia back to her father.

Rather than take the baby from Leah, Miguel opens his arms and pulls both girls in for a hug and reassures her that it's fine, while Jacob and Bella take the chance to escape.

Jacob takes the wheel, while Bella looks over her shoulder. "Leah's going to make the most hilarious mom someday."

"She'll be a great mom," Jacob grins. "Maybe to that little girl, and maybe have a dozen of her own."

"You think so? Did Taha Aki say something?"

Jacob takes her hand in his right and leaves the left on the wheel. "Sort of. Just that he can't predict the future, but the female shifters that came before Leah could have kids. He doesn't know of any reason she can't, but he also admitted that he wouldn't necessarily know."

"So what's going on with her and Sam? They seem to be on better terms now."

"They are," Jacob nods.

"They're not, you know..."

"No, no. I mean, I think he'd still try to make it work with her in a heartbeat if she said so, but she's been pretty clear on that point, right? But she saw him get his throat smashed by Alec. Just like everyone else, she was terrified it was fatal. She was afraid he was going to die. It's, uh, a good moment to ask a girl for forgiveness, you know?"

"Did he? Did she?"

Jacob chuckles. "Not in so many words. But he saw her sympathy and grabbed onto it. She's been with him basically as much as possible since he found out his taxilit died, too. It hit him hard, and she's helping him through it. They spent a lot of time together on the island. I mean, we all did, it's not that big a place, but the two of them in particular. She was clear that she's with Miguel now, and he's got no chance other than to accept it, or let go of her completely."

"He picked the former?"

"Uh huh."

She thinks of Sam's communication with Leah after he put Emily in their car. "And that's it? He's just going home with Emily and trying to make it work?"

Jacob sighs. "You mean, just give in to the imprint? I don't know if he knows how to do that anymore. When he sees Em, he sort of forgets about everything else. But now that he's seen the way Rachel was with Paul, the way I've been with Jasmine, he knows there's another way. He can't look at Em the same way, particularly when he's not standing right next to her. He really wants to know which of his feelings for her are real, and which are the ones that only exist because she wants them to exist. He can't unknow what he knows. He's kind of mad at her for putting him in the position he's in because of how she feels, but still torn up about how he hurt her. And he cares about her. He just doesn't know exactly what it means."

"It really wasn't fair what happened to either of them. They were working with such limited information, you know? I wonder how things would have been if they hadn't imprinted first of all you guys. If they had anything other than the old legends to go off of."

"He wants to know the same thing. He wants some space."

Bella sighs. "Because he can't tell his real feelings from hers when he's around her?"

"Exactly. So I've decided to give it to him."

"You? How?"

"I talked it over with my dad and Old Quil. Not all the relationship stuff. It's just that there's so much we don't know, and apparently, there are other guardian spirits, other shifters out there to find."

Bella remembers. "Yeah, Taha Aki said so."

"So I'm asking him to go look for them. He wants to do it anyway. Losing his taxilit was a real blow, Bells. I don't know if it's possible for him to have another, but he wants to find out. He wants to see who else is out there, learn what there is to know. Talk to the animals, find out what they have to teach us, and look for the rest of Taha Aki's family. Our family," he corrects himself. "Our ancestors."

"The other taxilits? He's going to look for them?"

"Exactly. It'll give him some space."

"Taha Aki can't just tell you where they all are?"

Jacob frowns a bit. "I don't know. He hasn't, anyway. I guess a lot of them are really lost in their animals. But I can't tell what he knows and what he doesn't. He tells us what he wants us to know. Maybe he wants Sam to go? Either way, he really doesn't talk that much."

Bella squeezes his hand gently. Sam's ordeal seems almost minor in comparison to Jacob's, or to the great Spirit Chief's. "So how was it? The ceremony?"

"Intense. In some ways, we didn't know the bear at all, but in others... Being part of the pack, part of the legends, we were closer to him than we were to other people we've known our whole lives."

"How is Taha Aki?"

"Hard to tell. He's got something to do, but then I think we aren't going to see him for a while either."

"Something to do?" she prompts.

Jacob glances at her before bringing her hand up for a kiss. "Yeah. Jasmine asked him for help. After what happened, she knows that the imprint is bad for both of us. She sees that it nearly got us both killed. So she asked him to break the imprint."

Bella's eyes widen. "Is that possible?"

"Not exactly. We all kept wondering why she was still fixated on me even after I told her I was staying with you, right?"

"You mean, since Rachel sort of released Paul before she fell in love with him for real?"

"Yeah." Jacob nods. "She thought it meant I didn't really want her to stay away, the way Em told Sam to go back to Leah but didn't really mean it. But she understands now that that's not the case. I don't want to be with her, period. So the two of us, we couldn't break her side of the imprint. Even Rach, when she wanted Paul to be happy and free, the imprint didn't break. She just wanted him to be able to be happy with someone other than her, so he was able. The imprint was still there."

Her face falls. "So there's nothing to do? That's it? You could reject your imprint on Jasmine, but no one else knows how?"

Jacob traces circles in the back of her hand with the rough pad of his thumb. "So that's the interesting thing. Apparently I'm not the first one to reject their imprint. It's not common, but it has happened. But I'm the first to realize it, probably because there's never been a situation like this one, where two wolves were supposed to imprint on each other. I wouldn't have figured it out if she hadn't imprinted on me. Just like I kind of hated her, the wolf hated her, inexplicably, the first time I saw her? That's happened a few times. But no one really knew what it was. They just really didn't like the girl, and avoided her, and that was that. Nobody knew it was an imprint getting rejected. The way Taha Aki explained it to me, if the wolf is stronger than the man, the wolf's desire for the imprint can override the man's wishes. But if the man is stronger than the wolf, the man can convince the wolf to reject the whole process. I didn't even have to convince my wolf, since he loves you too. But either way, the whole process is subconscious, and it all happens in the instant he lays eyes on her. No one has ever fully imprinted and then broken it."

Bella is dismayed. "So Sam doesn't have the choice to break his imprint with Emily? And Jasmine can't break her imprint on you?"

Jacob nods. "Not anymore."

"So she's stuck? We're stuck?"

"As long as the wolf remains." Now she notices the glint in his eye. The corner of his mouth turns up. "But if the wolf goes, the imprint goes with it."

Bella gawks at him. "The wolf can go?"

Jacob slows the truck to a crawl on the empty street and releases her hand so that he can cup Bella's cheek. "Taha Aki can draw out the wolf. The imprint goes with it. And once it's gone, it can never come back."

Bella stares up at him. "Really? Is she... Does she..."

"She wants it gone. He's going to do it."

"Wow. When?"

"Tonight."

X-x-x-x-X

At sunset, Jacob knocks on Brady's door. He opens it and steps aside to let his Alpha in. Jacob feels Jasmine's gaze on him before he sees her in the darkened hallway. He nods his head at the door. "We'll catch up with you." Brady glances between them and jogs away.

Jasmine gives him a small, "Hey."

He doesn't greet her. He doesn't know what to say. So he just holds out his hand. She looks at it in surprise before stepping forward and taking it. He squeezes it gently. "You sure this is what you want to do?"

She takes a shaky breath. "It is."

"You don't have to, you know. I'm sorry about what I said the other day." They both notice that he doesn't actually take back his words, he only apologizes for voicing them.

She nods vigorously, and he thinks he sees the sheen of tears in her eyes, but they are lidded as she stares at her hand in his. "I know that. I do. But it's the right thing to do. It's hard to remember, hard not to just let the imprint take over..." Her voice is thick with emotion. He knows what she means, that the imprint rises to the surface and wants to keep them together for all time.

He agrees with her, but doesn't want her to feel as if she is being kicked out of the pack. She was already punished severely for her mistake. "You understand that it's irreversible, right? Once you do this, you can't change your mind."

"I'm not going to change my mind, Jacob. I'm not just doing it for you, you know. I'm doing it for me."

"That's a good thing," he answers softly. "You should only do it if it's the right thing for you. Do you think it is?"

She swallows a lump in her throat and looks him directly in the eye. "Don't you?"

He examines her closely. She really does want the unvarnished truth. "I do."

Even though she fully expected the answer, it still causes her pain. "Yeah. Me too."

He lowers his voice to a comforting rumble. "You're always going to be our sister, Jasmine. That's not going to change."

A single tear runs down her cheek. She hastily brushes it away and murmurs, "And she's always going to be your..."

He answers roughly, "Yeah. She always was. I'm sorry."

"Me too," she whispers before stepping back and dropping his hand. "You have no idea how much." She clears her throat. "Look, can we get going?"

"Sure, sure."

They walk in silence, and at a human speed. She thinks to herself that she might as well get used to the slower pace. They do not speak, but the silence is not uncomfortable. They have been through far too much together to feel awkward any longer.

By the time they reach the cliffs, the same spot where they dive, the sun has dipped below the Pacific Ocean. The western sky glows a dusky orange strikingly similar to Jasmine's pelt. The sky above them is a deep, rich blue, and the eastern horizon is painted an inky navy with stars winking from behind the thin clouds. A full moon illuminates the gathering.

No one else joins the pack. Although many of the elders wanted to come, Jacob knows that this is no spectacle to be witnessed and politely declined their request. So nine wolves sit on their haunches in a semicircle on the bluff.

Jacob pulls off his shorts, shifts into his wolf, and takes his place in the circle. Jasmine takes a deep breath, tugs her dress over her head, and phases for the last time.

She moves into the center. One by one, each wolf steps forward and gently presses their muzzle against her forehead, her cheek, her nose. One by one, each wolf says goodbye to its sister.

Jacob is last. When he approaches, her head is lowered in shame and sorrow, her tail hanging limply. He nudges her to look up using his paw, and he leans down to press his cheek against hers. In her mind, he hears her crying out for him, so he lingers. He tilts his head down and presses his forehead to hers, and he feels her devotion wash over him. It is this very devotion that allows her to leave.

He steps back when he hears the eagle call, and retreats back to his place in the circle. As one, the pack looks to the sky and sees the majestic bird circling overhead. At first, the spiral is wide, and the eagle is high. But gradually, it tightens its loop and dips lower and lower.

And then it dives. It looks like a bullet speeding toward earth. It appears as if it will plummet directly down upon Jasmine, but at the last second, it opens its wings and sweeps up into the sky. It flies up and out until it is nearly out of sight, but with a twist, it falls again. Jasmine stares up at it, falling directly to earth, directly to her. Jacob glances away from the eagle and at Jasmine, and for a moment, it looks like the human girl stands before him. She shimmers, he blinks, and then it appears as if the wolf has not moved at all. But at her center, the lights in her heart begin to grow brighter and more distinct. And as the eagle nearly falls into her, once more spreading its wings at the last second and reversing its course back upward, the twin lights separate.

And as the eagle rises into the atmosphere, Jasmine blurs back and forth, wolf to girl, girl to wolf, and back again. Her spirits grow brighter, now shining enough to see the bluish tint of one and the red glow of the other.

The eagle screams and dives, an arrow aimed at her. She doesn't move. She welcomes him. She welcomes this. And at the last second, Taha Aki spreads his wings and twists, and the tip of one broad wing brushes against her forehead.

Taha Aki catches the star in his claws. He banks toward Jacob, and as the light sweeps over him, Jacob feels the love of the other wolf as warmth on his skin. He hears a faint, _Goodbye, my love. _And then the eagle climbs. Taha Aki carries the wolf spirit with him into the upper reaches of the stratosphere. He flies higher, higher, ever higher, until they can no longer see the great Spirit Chief. The red light grows brighter, stronger, and higher, ever higher, until it looks like the brightest star in the sky. They strain their eyes for any sign of the eagle, but they only see the red glow. Together, the wolves open their throats and howl.

When they finally look back down, Jasmine the girl remains curled on the hard ground. Leah moves forward and drags a blanket over her, and she pulls it around herself gratefully. She keeps her eyes trained on her knees, and although she hasn't shrunk a single centimeter, she somehow seems smaller. A few tears hit the ground beneath her.

Around her, her pack brothers return to human form and pull on their clothes. And one by one, they smile at her.

Jared breaks the silence. "Kim wants you to come over on Saturday. You want to have dinner with us?"

She looks up, and her worried face breaks into a tentative smile. "Yeah. That'd be great."

"See you at six, then." He returns her smile and turns to jog away.

Brady asks, "You coming home now? My mom said she'd bring back those cookies that you like from the bakery."

Seth interrupts and throws his arm around her. "Nah. She's coming to our house tonight. We're doing a movie marathon."

"What're you watching?" Quil asks.

"The Batman movies. We have all of them, Keaton, Kilmer, all of 'em."

"Oh, sweet!" Embry rubs his hands together. "Got room on your couch for one more?"

Seth replies, "Sure!"

Jasmine tilts her head. "Those aren't exactly things a baby would watch."

"She's asleep by now," Leah shrugs. "Miguel's making some chili, but I don't know if there's enough for more than a few hungry wolves."

Quil points in the general direction of his mother's store. "We'll pick up some grub. How's that sound?"

"'Course. You guys want to come?" Seth glances at the rest of the pack.

Collin and Brady glance at each other. "Actually, this girl in our class is throwing a little party. We didn't say we were coming, but..."

Jasmine shakes her head. "You guys should go. I'll catch you back at the house later."

Seth turns his head. "How about you, Paul? Sam?"

Paul shrugs. "I got no other plans tonight."

Sam looks at Leah without answering. She glances back before breaking eye contact, then flips her hair over her shoulder as she occupies herself with tying her halter dress around her neck. "You guys know there's plenty of room. Mom got a nice 40 inch flat screen in the basement now. Sam? You in?"

He relaxes visibly. "Yeah. I have time for at least one."

Guilelessly, Jasmine asks, "You don't need to get back to Em?"

Sam shifts uncomfortably. Just a few hours before, he had told Emily about his impending departure to search for the rest of the taxilits. She had taken the news hard, particularly since she knew that Jasmine was about to lose her wolf that very evening. She obviously feared that Sam was going to ask for the same, but he reassured her that he was not. His wolf is a part of him, his role as a protector is a part of him. He cannot imagine what it might be like to watch his brothers go to battle without him, what it might have been like to know Jacob had been captured and not have a hand in tearing apart the sadistic vampires who threatened them. So he has no intention of asking Taha Aki to separate his wolf from him. Therefore, even now, he feels the invisible ropes binding him to Emily tugging him back toward his little cabin in the woods. But now he knows the ropes as the bindings they are, and he resists. He answers, "Not yet. I kind of thought this would take longer, so I told her I'd be back pretty late. Besides." He narrows his eyes at Leah. They are only just now reaching a new equilibrium, and as much as it pains him to watch her with another man, it makes him happy to see her happy, and he gets a warm sense of contentment in his stomach when she smiles at him. He wants to spend time with her before they both depart. "I want to watch the Clooney one."

She laughs, and his heart lifts. The bindings around his heart suddenly feel less painful. "You just want to ogle the batsuit with nipples on it."

He smiles. "I want to watch you watch that one. I know how much you hate it. Watching that one with you is like watching an old episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000." He wants Leah to keep laughing, and he wants to see it.

"Oh, no. That one is only worth one thing. We should have a bonfire tonight just so we can throw it in. You have your choice of the Christian Bale movies, or none."

The group starts to walk toward the Clearwater house. Sam falls into step with Leah. "The Kilmer version?"

"I will tie you down and force you to watch The Notebook. Jake, you coming? You should get Bella and bring her over."

"Sure, sure." He starts toward his house, while Paul points in the opposite direction.

"Dude, where you going? She lives that way."

"She's waiting at my house," he smiles. "We'll be there in a bit." He catches Jasmine peeking at him over her shoulder with a wistful turn of her lips before Quil affectionately tucks her under his arm.

He jogs to his house and smiles when he sees warm yellow light illuminating the windows. His smile turns into a grin when he smells the scent of Bella's homemade lasagna drifting outside, and his jog turns into a run when he hears her laughing at something her father said. He throws open the door, and she turns to him with an expectant look on her face.

And when she sees his grin, her returning one lights up her entire face. She stands and opens her arms. "Jake!"

He sweeps her up and squeezes her tightly. "Hey, Bells."

She asks, "Everything's okay?"

"Everything's great."

"That's a relief," Charlie leans back into the couch cushions.

"You got here just in time for food, son. Did you time it that way on purpose?" Billy asks. It is much later than they usually eat, but they wanted to eat together as a family, and so they waited for him.

"Just a very happy coincidence. Will you guys be okay here if we go over to Leah's after dinner? A bunch of people are getting together."

"Sure! You know Charlie and I can entertain each other. You kids deserve to have some fun."

So they move into the kitchen for the most satisfying meal Jacob can recall having in months. Afterward, when they wave to their fathers and close the front door behind them, Bella gasps as she stares up into the sky. She points up to the uncommonly clear night. "What is that, Jake?"

He looks up, and to his surprise, the red star is still bright. "You can see that?"

"Yeah. What is it? It's such an interesting color. Is it Venus or something?"

"No, Bells. That's... That's her."

She looks at him in surprise. "Jasmine's wolf?"

"Yeah. I didn't know that would happen."

"She's beautiful," Bella breathes.

Jacob pulls her into his arms and kisses the top of her head. "Not nearly as beautiful as you."

They walk slowly to the Clearwaters', swinging their hands between them in the manner of children. Their progress is slow as one or the other of them points up at a constellation or a particularly bright star. Bella's gaze is drawn to Jasmine's wolf again and again, but Jacob is drawn in not by the celestial lights, but their reflection in Bella's wide eyes. She draws patterns, seeing the myths of the Greeks, the Romans, and many of her own invention. He tells her that the Makah believe that they were born from the mating of stars with earthbound animals, and she wonders aloud if Jasmine's wolf became a star, if the opposite is actually true. It isn't until later that they realize that no one outside the pack, Bella excepted, can see the red glow. In fact, from that moment on, every time Jacob looks into the night, he sees the red star hanging directly above him. It doesn't change with the seasons, doesn't move across the dome of the night sky. It stays with him.

But tonight, knowing it is there is more than enough. In fact, it is a kindness he didn't expect to have. He doesn't need anything other than the girl by his side, the girl whose spirit comes to him even when he is miles away, who loves him with more devotion than had dared to hope for, who has discovered the inner strength that she didn't know existed until he showed it to her, but he was always certain was there. She is the girl who captured his heart so many years ago, whose heart has now melded with his in every way possible, and now, even in a manner entirely impossible. He feels her heart beating solidly in his chest, and he silently thanks every star in the sky for her.

As she looks up at the red star once more, she catches his expression of utter and overwhelming love. So she reaches up and draws his lips to hers, and he kisses her softly and sweetly. He kisses her like it is beginning of the rest of their lives.

X-x-x-x-X

A/N: A final and huge thanks to my wonderful beta, Babs81410, without whom this story would look quite different and much worse. This was the final chapter.

To those of you asking for a sequel, I am contemplating one and have some ideas, but haven't committed to it at this time. I definitely have two other short stories on the way for projects at Tricky Raven and JBNP which will eventually be posted here at FFN. One will be Leah-centric, but will still feature a J/B pairing. The other is not yet even outlined (which, incidentally, means I can still be swayed on the topic/pairing/plot).

Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you've enjoyed reading Dreamscapes and its sequel as much as I've enjoyed writing them.


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